India’s Newest Crypto ‘Unicorn’ CoinSwitch Kuber in Talks with Government over Regulation: Report

Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch Kuber is in talks with India’s government over regulation of the industry, CEO Ashish Singhal said in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday.

• Singhal said conversations with the government and regulators are in a “Q&A phase.”

• “Regulators are engaging with industry leaders like us and industry bodies and trying to understand cryptocurrencies – and we do understand the stance of the government.”

• However, he admitted there are “fundamental flaws” in crypto which mean it does not abide with some of India’s laws.

• The Indian government appears to have relaxed its plans to outright ban crypto, which was mooted earlier this year. Instead, the government is said to be in discussions to regulate the use of crypto in illegal transactions.

• CoinSwitch Kuber recently became India’s second crypto unicorn when a $260 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase Ventures gave it a valuation of $1.9 billion.

• With 10 million customers at present, the exchange has set a goal of onboarding 50 million Indians via new crypto products and services such as lending and staking.