In this episode of the businessline podcast, Haripriya Sureben speaks with Ashish Singhal, CEO, Coinswitch, about the challenges and prospects of the crypto industry in India.

The crypto industry in India is currently facing multiple challenges, including a prolonged bear market, effective taxation rules, and regulatory uncertainties. Singhal emphasises that market cycles are not new to the crypto world, and resilient companies survive and thrive by focusing on solving user problems and improving their products during bear markets.

Read: India G20 presidency aims to develop common framework to deal with crypto risks: FM

Regarding regulations, Singhal acknowledges the progress made in discussions with regulatory bodies and believes that regulations should focus on the parts of the crypto ecosystem that are well understood, like exchanges and NFTs. He highlights the importance of collaboration through associations like the Bharat Web3 Association to present a unified case to the government.

Read: CoinSwitch launches API trading

Despite the current market conditions, Singhal believes that the enthusiasm in the industry remains strong, with many startups working behind the scenes to build the next phase of the crypto ecosystem. He also mentions CoinSwitch’s support for these startups through the Discovery Fund.

Singhal addresses the need for crypto exchanges to diversify their offerings to meet evolving user needs, emphasising that CoinSwitch remains a crypto-first company but aims to solve users’ changing requirements.

Singhal also discusses recent layoffs at CoinSwitch, explaining that these were due to the automation of certain roles and that the company is actively hiring for other positions. Regarding CoinSwitch’s product roadmap, Singhal confirms that the company is on track to launch seven products by the end of the year, with the fourth product in the crypto space set to be released soon.

Read: Blanket bans on crypto can be technically demanding to enforce, warns IMF and FSB report

In response to concerns about competition, Singhal believes that India’s crypto market is still underpenetrated and sees room for growth by addressing users’ needs effectively.

Overall, the discussion sheds light on the challenges and opportunities in the Indian crypto industry and CoinSwitch’s strategies for growth and innovation.