Coinbase and Polygon back new crypto advocacy group in India • TechCrunch
Top crypto firms including Coinbase and Polygon are among the firms that have formed an industry body in India to promote dialogue between key stakeholders and raise awareness of web3, months after the largest local crypto advocacy group disbanded.
Members of the new industry body, called the Bharat Web3 Association (BWA), include top local crypto exchanges, including CoinDCX, CoinSwitch Kuber and WazirX. It also includes Hike, Biconomy, ZebPay and Tax Nodes, BWA said in a statement.
“India’s Web 3.0 potential – in terms of talent, investment and innovation – is revolutionary, and will surely position the nation as a global leader in this fast-growing field,” Nana Murugesan, vice president of international and business development at Coinbase, said in a statement.
“We support BWA’s mission to grow the Web 3.0 ecosystem through stakeholder collaboration, thought leadership and education. Building robust infrastructure and designing the enabling environment can allow players like Coinbase to build a more free, open and secure Internet.
Murugesan and several other Coinbase executives are currently in India, where they have spent the past few days holding dialogue with key ministers, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. Coinbase had a failed launch in India earlier this year after it rolled back the service in the very week of launch after a regulatory body expressed concern.
Dialogues between Coinbase and government officials have yet to move the needle on restoring service in the country, the person said, requesting anonymity for private matters.
Bharat Web3 Association will also seek to find standardized principles for the web3 industry and help nurture India’s talent pool.
India’s central bank continues to force the hand of banks from engaging with crypto platforms in India, a move that has turned on-ramps into a nightmare for the firms involved, people familiar with the matter said.
Many investors and entrepreneurs in the country have been scrambling for months to find newer, more effective ways, including engagement with NITI Aayog, a powerful think tank, to connect with policymakers, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. Niti Aayog resisted getting involved in the crypto industry, sources added.
Indian lawmakers, for their part, have met several industry faces over the past year, but so far they are of the view that the rapid adoption of crypto trading has hurt most consumers and more safeguards should be put in place, the sources said.
In the wake of the uncertainty, the local ecosystem has seen some talent move outside the country and a growing number of local entrepreneurs are building for foreign markets and avoiding serving customers in India, the world’s second-largest internet market.
The local industry was previously represented by the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council, part of the influential technology lobby group Internet and Mobile Association of India in the country. The advocacy group said in July that it disbanded the crypto entity because “a resolution of the regulatory environment for the industry remains very uncertain.”
The move was the culmination of years of frustration for the Indian crypto industry, which felt the lobby group’s influence and reach had been unable to deliver landmark results, TechCrunch previously reported, citing sources.
“Due to its thriving developer community, entrepreneurial spirit, fast-growing economy, solid digital infrastructure and deep digital adoption, India is poised to become a leader in the Web3 space,” Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, said in a statement.
“Indian entrepreneurs have already made their mark in the ecosystem and are innovating for the world and developing valuable public use cases. BWA will play a pivotal role in helping India achieve its potential as a global Web3 leader.”
