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Cryptocurrency exchanges in the country are moving beyond trading services to include other options such as lending, fixed deposit and SIPs.
Exchanges such as ZebPay, Coin DCX, Bitbns and Vauld provide options for lending of crypto deposits that enable users earn interest.
“The crypto ecosystem essentially has all the products that the equity ecosystem has. We have been trying to make our users aware that they don’t need to go in just for crypto trading, but can go for products that suit their risk profile,” said Gaurav Dahake, Founder and CEO, Bitbns. The company offers fixed deposits as well as an SIP option called Bitdroplet to customers, and Dahake said there is ample investor interest in them. “Over 1.25 lakh people have explored the fixed income plan or fixed deposit product since it went live over a year ago. Typically, the average ticket size is ₹3,000,” he said. The SIP has over 2.5 lakh active folios, he said.
Two types of customers
Darshan Bathija, CEO, Vauld, said the company onboards two types of customers – those who are keen to buy and sell crypto – and those who want to hold capital for the medium to long term and earn interest on their deposits.
Over the next 12 months, the company plans to add more touchpoints of banking into the crypto world such as account issuing, cards, and get bank accounts deeply integrated into the Vauld platform.
Bathija told BusinessLine that licensing and regulatory permissions vary from country to country.
“We are a licensed applicant in Singapore, and it allows us to issue accounts ourselves. In India, we are going through the partnership route, looking to partner with banks and PPI route.”
Explaining the plans for the card, he said the customer can use the Vauld card at any merchant outlet and while the merchant will receive money in INR through the card network, Vauld would debit the customer’s balance in bitcoin. “It feels like they are spending their crypto, we are making this a more spendable asset,” he said.
Meanwhile, CoinSwitch Kuber, which recently raised $260 million in Series C funding round, plans to utilise parts of the launch of new crypto products and services such as lending and staking, among others, to enable users benefit the most out of this decentralised technology.
New asset classes
Ashish Singhal, co-founder and CEO, CoinSwitch Kuber, said the company also wants to diversify and add new asset classes such as mutual funds and insurance and create a financial well-being platform.
Coin DCX also has a lending option on its platform that enables users earn interest on their cryptocurrencies. Similarly, Zeb Pay’s lending platform also enables users lend the company their cryptos for either an open term or a fixed term.
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