Nischal Shetty and Siddharth Menon, both co-founders of WazirX, have left India with their families for Dubai, indicating that India’s unfriendly stance towards the digital asset sector is causing an exodus crypto-entrepreneurs from the nation. Shetty and Menon are WazirX’s CEO and COO, respectively.
Since April 1, when the new crypto taxation rules came into effect, the Binance-operated firm, India’s largest crypto exchange by volume, has been among the several local trading sites that have suffered a dramatic drop in transactions.
Although there is no official confirmation or rejection of these reports, WazirX responded to a media question with a statement claiming that the company is remote-first and that its executives may work from anywhere, according to the news article.
“We are a remote-first company with employees in over 70 different locations.” This allows all firm workers to work from anywhere they like, as long as they are comfortable and convenient unless they are forced to travel for official reasons. WazirX’s headquarters are in Mumbai and Bengaluru, and none of our working methods has changed. Business Today reported, “It’s business as usual.”
Dubai is quickly establishing itself as a new crypto city, and it might become a key destination for Binance, which owns WazirX. In light of this, the relocation of top WazirX executives to Dubai suggests that they may be recruited for higher responsibilities at Binance.
A sharp drop in volume is hammering exchanges:
“Data from cryptocurrency aggregator Coingecko.com indicated that trading volumes on prominent crypto exchanges (normalized for the previous year) fell 92-98 per cent on April 10 at one point compared to peaks witnessed last year.”
To make matters worse, as of April 1, at least four payment aggregators, including MobiKwik, have stopped providing services to crypto exchanges. This is in addition to businesses like Unified Payments Exchange refusing to provide quick electronic retail payments and settlement services (UPI).
The near-collapse of trading volume at digital asset exchanges like WazirX has been attributed to high crypto taxes and banks’ refusal to provide retail payments services.
Dubai is establishing itself as a new crypto hub:
To offer a clear regulatory framework for the crypto business, Dubai passed a new Virtual Assets Law on March 9 and established an independent Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority.
Binance has been granted permission to operate a digital asset exchange in the city. FTX intends to establish a regional headquarters in the city as well. Bybit has in-principle permission, while CryptoCom is preparing to hire for its next venture in the United Arab Emirates.
