As many as five Indian cryptocurrency exchange s have shut down their operations amid strong headwinds, regulatory hurdles, and scams, which also consumed global heavyweights like FTX, according to a market survey.
FTX, one of the world’s major global crypto exchanges, is the latest to file for bankruptcy protection in the US. Data from blockchain research and rating firm CREBACO showed that FTX had roughly $1 billion in revenues last year.
FTX ran into serious problems after a liquidity crisis hit the business, which forced Binance to cancel its purchase deal with the exchange.
Last year, FTX had grown its customer base to 3.1 million from 246,000 in 2020. On November 11, 2022, it filed for bankruptcy protection in the US.
In India, five crypto exchanges had already been shut down since the global crypto market waded into serious troubles post the pandemic.
Here are a few Indian crypto exchanges that were closed.
1. Koinex
In June 2019, Mumbai-based crypto exchange Koinex shut down its operation.
Koinex started its services on August 25, 2017, after it was founded in the same year. It had recorded $265 million in trading volume. It added more than 40,000 new users in 24 hours at its peak in December 2018.
Koinex's Twitter account, which had over 24,000 followers, has been inactive since July 2019, and its official website 'koinex.in' is no longer working.
2. BTCXIndia
Hyderabad-based BTCXIndia, a crypto platform, stopped its services in March 2018. According to Kamesh Mupparaju, the creator and CEO of the platform, BTCXIndia stopped operating due to regulatory pressure. "If there is a sudden (order) to withdraw funds, it would mean trouble for the customers," Muppajaru told CNN in 2018.
BTCXIndia's Twitter account has been inactive since 2018. Its website, "btcxindia.com," also remains inactive. The company was launched in 2013.
3. Coinsecure
Crypto exchange Coinsecure was closed after losing over $3.5 million in a major hack blamed on its top security officer. In a message posted to its website at the time, the company said it lost significant funds while extracting bitcoin gold for distribution to customers. The operation was allegedly led by Coinsecure's chief security officer (CSO) Amitabh Saxena.
The Delhi-based crypto exchange, founded by Benson Samuel and Mohit Kalra in Founded in 2014, irrevocably lost investors' trust after the incident. One of the investors told Time of India in 2018, "We didn't see this coming." Its Twitter handle and website have been inactive since 2018.
4. Coindelta
Coindelta, one of the country's major crypto exchanges, was shut down in 2019. In its blog post in 2019, Coindelta said: "Much to our regret, we will no longer be able to provide exchange services for cryptocurrencies. It has been difficult for us to operate Coindelta for the last six months."
The Pune-based exchange was founded in 2017 by Rajdeep Singh, Shubham Yadav, and Manish K. Its Twitter and website have been inactive since July 2019.
5. Cryptokart
Gaurang Poddar, the founder of the Indian cryptocurrency exchange Cryptokart, announced closing the business in 2019. The company was founded in 2017 by Poddar and Mihir Modi.
