By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2022
The company is yet to decide on a timeline for their going public.
The first crypto unicorn in India, CoinDCX is ready for an initial public offering (IPO). According to the founder of the crypto unicorn, Neeraj Khandelwal, the company will go public once it obtains permission from regulators. Khandelwal spoke about the listing in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV.
The crypto exchange considers itself the largest and safest cryptocurrency exchange platform in India. The company’s decision comes at a critical time for the future of cryptocurrencies in India. This is based on the government’s decision to ban all private cryptocurrencies while developing an official digital currency.
CoinDCX IPO to Offer Legitimacy Amid Crypto Controversies
The proposed legislative bill reduces the likelihood of the government adopting a friendly attitude towards the crypto industry. Regulators have had a constant back and forth on their views regarding the crypto industry in India. A ban was effectively placed on the industry in 2018, but the Supreme Court annulled the decision last year. Following the court ruling, crypto became legal in India.
Despite all these, Khandelwal remains optimistic about their plan to pursue an IPO for CoinDCX. He opines that pursuing a public debut after the government’s approval will legitimize the crypto industry. Also, the company aims its IPO will create a vote of confidence similar to Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN) whose listing was earlier this year.
“An IPO gives a legitimacy to the industry, just like the Coinbase IPO gave a lot of confidence in the crypto markets. Similarly we want to instill a similar level of confidence with an IPO of CoinDCX,” explained the founder.
Nevertheless, the company is yet to decide on a timeline for their going public. In a statement by the founder, the IPO timeline is dependent on the regulation from the incoming government.
CoinDCX, India’s First Cryptocurrency to Attain Unicorn Status
Sunit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal founded CoinDCX in 2018. The Indian unicorn boasts more than 6 million users. The company raised $90 million in Series C funding. This funding round brought the company to unicorn status with more than $1 billion valuation in August. Notably, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group led the CoinDCX financing in August. Other participants in the $90 million Series B round were Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Block.one, Jump Capital, including other unnamed investors.
Ahead of the Series C round, CoinDCX secured $13.5 million in December 2020.
Additionally, the exchange platform boasts of over ₹75 billion crypto purchases and ₹3 billion crypto investments.
As the Indian government aims for an official digital currency, several countries globally hope for the same standard. Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) is one of the ongoing projects in many central banks. While some are still in the infancy stage, others have already conducted trials and are approaching launch.
