Indian crypto industry expanding, regulators seem reluctant to engage

The people of India are awaiting access to crypto banking services, as British-based fintech firm Cashaa has collaborated with India's United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society to launch a crypto-centric banking company called Unicas that will initially open 34 branches in Northern India and plans to have expanded to 100 branches by next year.

The Indian crypto industry has seen enormous growth both in volumes and new clients since its Supreme Court removed a two-year ban on banks servicing cryptocurrency exchanges in March 2020.

"The Indian crypto ecosystem has been growing tremendously since the Supreme Court lifted the banking ban on crypto in India. The positive verdict was immediately followed by a lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This period has also given people more time at hand to read about crypto and participate in it."

As a result of these factors, according to statistics provided by Apifiny, almost all of the major international crypto exchanges have reported a traffic increase from five to 10 times from Indian users in 2020.

With Binance having acquired WazirX, Bain & Company funding CoinDCX, and Polaris Capital beginning to invest in the crypto market in India, it's evident that big players have recognized the underlying potential that the Indian market has for crypto and have begun to allocate capital to participate in this growth.

"With the right confluence of events, such as the Indian government allowing the virtual currencies and the indigenous startups slow in adopting blockchain, PayPal can find itself in a unique position to make it easy for crypto accepting merchants to onboard on to PayPal's system and win the India market this time around."

The thriving crypto industry in India is also driven by innovators who develop new products for Indian investors inline with their savings-oriented investment behavior, offering them more lucrative returns than the traditional asset classes.

The only factor holding back the industry at the moment is perhaps the most important one: the lack of a clear regulatory framework, within which crypto firms can operate.

Although the recent "Leaked" information of another incoming ban from the government has been criticized by experts close to the matter, there still seems to be no word on how the government or the RBI sees this industry despite various efforts by crypto firms to indulge in this conversation and even assist in every way possible.

Currently, the Indian governing bodies seem to be turning a blind eye to the thriving crypto industry with no plans to discuss its future in India.