The country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange WazirX is undergoing a transition. The two co-founders of WazirX, Nischal Shetty and Siddharth Menon, have distanced themselves from the day-to-day operations of the firm and are now focusing on their new project. People familiar with the matter gave this information to Moneycontrol. WazirX was acquired by the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance in November 2019.
Moneycontrol has learned that the two co-founders have distanced themselves from the active operations of WazirX and will now be associated with it only in advisory roles. While Siddharth Menon will be associated with the idle capacity, Nischal Shetty has stepped down from the day-to-day operations of the firm. Sameer Mhatre, the third co-founder and current Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of the firm, will continue in his current role.
These changes to WazirX come at a time when the competition in the crypto industry is increasing. Rivals such as CoinDCX and Coinswitch have become unicorns. However, in the midst of all this, there is still uncertainty regarding the regulation of crypto in the country. There are mixed signals from the government and the RBI regarding the future of private cryptocurrencies in the country.
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A source said that Binance (which owns WazirX) may be looking at setting up a management team to oversee its operations in India as the interest of cryptocurrencies in the country has increased significantly over the past year, and thus Along with this, the competition in this field has also become very intense. Rivals of WazirX in India include Coinswitch, CoinDCX, Unocoin, Zebpay and Bitbns.
Apart from the uncertainty over the regulation of crypto in the country, the government has recently proposed a 30 percent tax on cryptocurrency earnings during the budget and this is also expected to affect the business of the crypto industry.
A few days ago, RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Shankar said that banning cryptocurrencies is “probably the most appropriate option for India.” Earlier, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had also said that cryptocurrencies are a threat to India’s macroeconomic stability and investors betting on it are doing it at their own risk.
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