Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is planning to enter India to explore and hire local staff for Web3 applications.
One of the 10 largest crypto exchanges by trading volume, OKX, doesn’t have a global headquarters but has regional hubs in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, and the Bahamas.
OKX is scaling up its wallet services by expanding its services in India with the best-known developer community, currently has around 200,000 wallet users in India, which is only 5% of the nation’s Web3 users.
Out of the top 10 crypto-trading apps that people in India are downloading, six of them come from exchanges based outside the country, as shown by AppTweak’s data.
Even Coinbase, one of those international exchanges, had its trading services stopped just three days after it started in India. The country’s political leaders have been urging the Web3 sector to separate itself from cryptocurrencies.
Haider Rafique, chief marketing officer of OKX said, “We’re going to learn about the community. We’re going to work with local folks. Figure out where we can add value.”
Recently OKX partnered with blockchain platform Neo for its APAC Hackathon in the southern city of Bengaluru, to understand the culture and support the ecosystem.
Cryptocurrency is in a sort of gray area in India. It’s not banned, but hasn’t passed any specific laws either. However, it made trading crypto subject to high taxes and has put rules in place to prevent money laundering.
India, as the head of the G20 group of nations, also released an input note calling for a global regulatory crypto framework earliar this year.
Haider Rafique said, “They’re more concerned about venues that have fiat on-ramps, which we do but we don’t offer it in India. Once India comes up with a regulatory framework for crypto then we would like to be the front runners.”
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