Exclusive: Crypto Exchange BuyUCoin Partners With Mobikwik; Registers In Estonia

Soon after the Supreme Court’s judgement in RBI Vs IAMAI case, there has been a slew of announcements by Indian crypto startups. Earlier today, as CoinDCX announced the closure of its Series A funding, another Delhi-based crypto exchange BuyUCoin has partnered with fintech company Mobikwik for the seamless fiat-to-crypto conversion. BuyUCoin has also acquired a licence to operate from Estonia, founder and CEO Shivam Thakral told Inc42.

For the last 22 months, Indian crypto exchanges had faced huge difficulty in offering INR-to-crypto trading due to RBI circular on April 6, 2018 which barred banks from extending any banking services to crypto exchanges. As a result, many of the exchanges’ banks accounts had been frozen.

However, as the Supreme Court has now set aside the RBI circular, banking and payments wallet services for cryptocurrencies have resumed and most of the crypto exchanges have already started offering INR to crypto direct trading options.

Founded by Atulya Bhatt, Devesh Aggrawal and Shivam Thakral in July 2016, Delhi-based BuyUCoin is registered as iBlock Technologies Private Limited. The exchange offers multi-cryptocurrency trading features.

On the partnership with Mobikwik, Thakral said, “We have partnered with Mobikwik which has around 70 Mn userbase. So, now users can buy cryptocurrencies using Mobikwik wallet too. According to the partnership, while Mobikwik will be integrated into our payment gateway, there will be an option/link at their wallet as well that will take users to our exchange.”

BuyUCoin Goes Global

BuyUCoin has also acquired licenses to operate from Estonia. Thakral said, “BuyUCoin is global now. We have acquired the license to operate from Estonia as well. There are two licenses required in Estonia, one is for converting fiat to crypto and vice versa. Other is for storing crypto in wallets. BuyUCoin has successfully acquired both the licenses.”

In the last few weeks, we have seen a slew of developments in the Indian crypto industry. While Zebpay made a comeback to India market under a different company name and new leadership, global exchanges such as Binance and OKEx have entered the Indian market as well. Recently, Binance announced the acquisition of Indian exchange WazirX, OKEx entered into a partnership with CoinDCX.

However, amid Covid-19 and coronavirus, like all other industries, the crypto industry also has been facing a slow down amid lockdowns and quarantines across India and European countries. Thakral said, the work progress has been slow, as there are limitations of work from home. Some other announcements from Indian crypto industry have been delayed in the wake of Covid-19.