The story of cryptocurrency hasn’t been settled yet and despite all the controversies & negative headlines the future of virtual currencies looks unpretentiously bright. By the way, in this topsy-curvy tale of cryptocurrency there lies a stirring story of an ambitious startup BuyUcoin.
BuyUcoin is essentially a cryptocurrency exchange that aims to make buying and selling cryptocurrencies unbelievably easy. Founded in 2016 by Shivam Thakral, Devesh Aggrawal, and Atulya Bhatt, this startup has made an adventurous journey in a brief time to emerge as one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges of India.
The platform’s many envious features have set an unparalleled benchmark in the industry and has shown the way for other exchanges. Buoyed by its success, the startup is now eyeing global expansion and is all set to enter into European market.
To know more about this and future plans as well as important features of the platform, Techpluto caught up with BuyUcoin’s co-founder and CEO Shivam Thakral. In this exclusive interview, Thakral has also shed light on the future of digital currencies and the overall cryptocurrency industry.
Q) How do you think Supreme Court’s recent historic judgment to lift the ban on cryptocurrency trading will impact India’s cryptocurrency industry?
Ans) 4th March 2020, who will not remember this historic date in the crypto world of India. Though it is important to clear this misconception that cryptocurrency trading was banned in India. It was the banks who were barred from giving their services to Crypto related companies.
Definitely it would be a game changer for the cryptocurrency Industry since the industry would have unrestricted access to banking services that would help users to easily transact with the exchanges.
Q) Being at the helm of a leading cryptocurrency exchange for such a long time, do you see any major perceptional change with regards to cryptocurrency among the Indian investors?
Ans) We have seen a lot of demand from new investors since the upliftment of ban but definitely it would take some more time for rest of Indian investors to change their perception as ban was almost there for 2 years but I am quite bullish on its future.
Q) Compared to other platforms, how do you judge BuyUcoin in terms of investor friendliness? How easy it is really for investors to buy & sell cryptocurrencies on your platform?
Ans) Our exchange is most user friendly among our peers since its custom designed according to Indian people. To make investment easy and quick in cryptocurrencies we have partnered with Mobikwik and other payment processing companies. Also we have recently onboarded global Market Makers on BuyUcoin platform.
Q) Can you please list some of the exclusive features of BuyUcoin, features that most other platforms don’t offer?
Ans) We have number of exclusive features like OTC Desk, Nominee Appointment, WhatsApp Support, Account Manager which help us to stand out.
Q) Can you please shed light on BuyUcoin’s current monthly trading volumes?
Ans) Our Current monthly trading volume is close to 14-16 million USD.
Q) Your opinion about Binance’s recent foray into the Indian market and its foreseeable impact on the Indian cryptocurrency industry in the long run?
Ans) Indian market is always one of the most promising markets around the globe with its unlimited potential. Therefore players like Binance entering to Indian market is confirming the same, this step would definitely help the Indian Cryptocurrency market to grow overall.
Q) Please enlighten us about BuyUcoin’s recent foray into Estonia’s cryptocurrency market and your new formed partnership with Mobikwik?
Ans) Europe was always on our roadmap for global expansion and hence the license in Estonia paved our way in that direction. Since Cryptocurrency doesn’t have boundaries so making our exchange global was the obvious step.
Partnership with Mobikwik is really crucial for the Indian Crypto Ecosystem since with this partnership more than 100 million Mobikwik users would have a direct option to buy cryptocurrency using the Mobikwik wallet.
Q) Apart from cryptocurrencies, BuyUcoin is also into blockchain. Can you tell us more about your blockchain products?
Ans) Yes we have a very strong blockchain arm and we work on both Public and Private Blockchain Networks like Hyperledger and R3 Corda. We’ve developed several products, right now and we’re working on Blockchain as a Tool Platform.
Q) Is BuyUCoin currently holding any talks with any investors to raise external funding?
Ans) Yes, we are working on it. As soon as any funding round materializes, we’ll definitely share it with people associated with us.
Q) Notwithstanding all the hype as well as the bad press, why should people be investing in cryptocurrencies?
Ans)
- Cryptocurrency Gives you total control of your money without any restrictions.
- You don’t need permission from anyone to spend your money.
- It could be a great hedge against the inflation in fiat currencies.
- You can easily store it safely without any third party help.
Q) Do you see a foreseeable future when digital currencies will indeed become an integral part of the global financial system and adopted as mode of payment by masses?
Ans) I definitely agree with the fact that digital currencies will become an integral part of the global financial system in the near future since many developed countries like China, USA are already in the process of launching their own digital currencies.
