CoinSwitch Kuber becomes 30th unicorn this year

Bengaluru, 9 October Crypto exchange platform CoinSwitch Kuber has joined the unicorn club after the company raised $260 million from a clutch of investors led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Coinbase ventures with a valuation of $1.9 billion.

The company became the second unicorn in India in the cryptocurrency space after CoinDCX was valued more than $1 billion.

Founded 16 months ago by Ashish Singhal, Vimal Sagar and Govind Soni, CoinSwitch is the 30th Indian company to become a unicorn this year.

The others include PayTM, Byju's, OYO, Udaan, Delhivery, Dream11, BigBasket, Lenskart, Unacademy, Cars24, FirstCry, CRED, Groww, Urban Company, BlackBuck, BharatPe, Udaan, Ola's Electric Vehicles (EV) and UpGrad among others.

Indians are increasingly investing in cryptocurrencies despite lack of clarity in regulatory framework. According to industry body Nasscom, these digital currencies have the potential to add $184 billion in India.

Recently, People's Bank of China (PBOC) declared that all crypto activity barring possession was illegal. The guidance, which was issued on 15 September, led to fall in the value of these currencies in the immediate aftermath. China had already banned initial coin offerings (ICOs), bitcoin transactions, and mining of bitcoin.

Experts are of the opinion that Chinese ban on trading and mining cryptocurrencies is expected to boost India's crypto space if the country adopts positive views on regulations front. Currently, the Reserve Bank of India-led committee is looking into the issue of regulations and is likely to come up with guidelines soon.

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