Indian exchange CoinDCX completes nearly $136 million in Series D financing, doubling its valuation to $2.15 billion

This article comes fromET, original author: Apoorva Mittal

Odaily Translator | Nian Yin Si Tang

Odaily Translator | Nian Yin Si Tang

Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX completed a $135.9 million (approximately Rs. 100 crore) D round of financing, led by Pantera Capital and Steadview Capital. Its valuation doubled to $2.15 billion in less than a year, becoming The highest value crypto trading platform in India.

Pantera Capital and Steadview Capital contributed about half of the latest funding round, with participation from Kingsway Capital, DraperDragon, Republic and Kindred Ventures, according to the firm. In addition, existing investors B Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital and Cadenza Capital Management also followed suit.

July 2021,July 2021,CoinDCX completes USD 90 million in Series C financing

, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin's B Capital led the round, with existing investors Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Block.one, Jump Capital and other angel investors also participating in the round. With a post-money valuation of $1.1 billion, the company became the first crypto company in India to achieve unicorn status.

Founded by Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal in 2018, CoinDCX is mainly a business of buying and selling encrypted tokens, and it also provides other encrypted-based financial products, such as loans.

"These investors have gone deep into the crypto space and they've seen growth in other regions," CoinDCX CEO Sumit Gupta said in an interview with Economic Times (ET), noting that despite the uncertainty, VCs remain bullish. Investment exchanges.

"High-quality investors don't judge the speed of business growth by volume, they bet on who is moving in the right direction." He further said, "Although the current volume of our platform is lower than in the past, it has never Long term, it really doesn't matter. What matters is how we make crypto mainstream..."

With the new financing, the exchange will grow its headcount from the current 400 to more than 1,000 by the end of next year, with plans to hire across multiple departments including engineering, product and compliance.

CoinDCX's user base has grown to 12 million from 3.5 million last August.

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looming uncertainty

Over the past two weeks, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has distanced itself from cryptocurrency exchanges, while mobile payment wallet Mobikwik has cut off access to users, ET reported on April 9.

On April 12, ET reported that trading volumes across several cryptocurrency exchanges hit six-month lows.

"The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is not available...but it is the easiest way for people to deposit money for crypto transactions...We are working to restore access to UPI," Gupta said, "We are in discussions with NPCI and stakeholders , to understand these challenges and how we can address them."In March this year, the industry reported to the Ministry of Financemake a suggestion

, considering reducing the deduction of the proposed 1 percent withholding tax at source (TDS) to 0.01 percent, saying it could wipe out a significant amount of trading volume on exchanges.

“Lowering the TDS threshold is definitely important because then people can actually transact without fear of funds being locked up,” Gupta said. I think we still have time until June, the discussions are going on..."

At the same time, CoinDCX is also interested in an IPO. Last November, CoinDCX co-founder Neeraj Khandelwaldisclosedisclose
, the company is eagerly awaiting government regulations to allow the crypto platform to go public.