The Indian crypto industry has emerged as one of the busiest in terms of deal-making in the year 2021. The total risk funding in domestic crypto and blockchain startups shot up to $587.16 Mn as of October 17 this year, compared to $37 Mn in the previous year, the highest ever, according to a report Economic Times.
Crypto exchange platforms CoinDCX and Coinswitch Kuber – the two new crypto unicorns in India — have alone raked in almost 60% of the capital raised this year. In the latest funding, CoinSwitch raised US$ 260 million at close to US$ 2 billion valuations while CoinDCX raised US$ 90 million at US$ 1.1 billion valuations.
Legendary silicon valley VC firm A16Z invested in the Indian crypto space by committing US$ 80 Mn to CoinSwitch. The VC firm runs a Crypto Fund III which is about $2.2 billion in size.
CoinDCX has seen Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group as well as Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Block.one, Jump Capital among others as investors.
“We are in a macro bull market rally. There’s a lot of capital on the side lines for high traction firms. There’s also a lot of liquidity; for example, the Coinbase listing in April generated new wealth, which is looking for new places to be deployed,” Economic Times quoted Joel John of digital asset venture capital firm Ledgerprime as saying.
TikTok rival Chingari had recently raised US$ 19 Mn in stable coins which has seen prominent crypto names – Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research, crypto exchange Kraken, Galaxy Digital, Solana Capital, Borderless Capital, and Republic Crypto as investors.
Recently, ethereum-based crypto startup Coinshift has raised $2.5 Mn in a seed round from investors Sequoia Capital India, Ryan Hoover of Product Hunt and Weekend Fund, Ethereal Ventures, Longhash Ventures, Fintech Collective, Consensys Mesh, Defi Alliance, Volt Capital, Gnosis, Protocol Labs, BR Capital among others.
This month, Stader Labs, a cryptocurrency staking management platform has raised $4 Mn in its seed funding round led by Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, True Ventures, Jump Capital, Proof Group, Hypersphere, Huobi Ventures, Solidity Ventures, Ledgerprime, and Double Peak Group.
The government, which was close to imposing a blanket ban, is now considering a calculated approach that brought some certainty in the investment space.