Months After BACC Closure, Indian Web3 Players Form New Association

The web3 startups in India have formed a new lobby which consists of WazirX, Hike, CoinSwitch Kuber, CoinDCX, Coinbase and Polygon as members, among others. The new association, Bharat Web3 Association (BWA), has been formed a few months after the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) dismantled the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC).

BWA will consist of members across verticals including NFTs, Web3 Gaming, Infrastructure Providers, Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs), and Token Projects.

The key focus areas of the association include driving awareness through research to help keep pace with evolving technology, promoting dialogue between key stakeholders, setting standardised principles in the Web3 industry, encouraging and promoting Web3 and blockchain innovation, and nurturing India’s talent pool.

The association believes that India has the potential to lead the world by building a strong Web3 ecosystem in the country, in line with the government’s ‘Make-In-India’ initiative over the next decade, it said in a statement.

According to Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and CEO of Hike, the blockchain enables consumers to own the value associated with their time spent digitally thus potentially unlocking brand new economic opportunities for themselves while Indian consumers spend an average of 7+ hours per day on their smartphones.

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that the next wave of wealth and value creation will come from a financial world that is programmable end to end. India could be at the centre of this next wave and boost its economy to strengthen its position on the world stage,” Mittal said.

It is to be noted that IAMAI took the decision to dismantle BACC due to the regulatory uncertainty. It said that the association would like to utilise its limited resources for other emerging digital sectors to make a more immediate and direct contribution to the social and economic mandate of digital India.

Sandeep Nailwal, cofounder of Polygon Technology, is of the view that India is poised to become a leader in the Web3 space owing to its thriving developer community, entrepreneurial spirit, fast-growing economy, sound digital infrastructure, and deep digital adoption. 

“Indian entrepreneurs have already made a mark in the ecosystem and are innovating for the world, developing valuable public use cases. BWA will play a pivotal role in helping India achieve its potential as a global Web3 leader,” Nailwal added.

The announcement comes at a time when crypto exchanges in India remain under regulatory scrutiny. While the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) continues to oppose cryptocurrencies, many major crypto exchanges have come under the lens of the Enforcement Directorate in its various money laundering probes.

Moreover, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently said crypto asset regulation would likely be one of India’s priorities in its leadership of the G20, but needed the support of other members.

“The forthcoming G20 discussions will provide an excellent opportunity for India in leading a collaborative regulatory framework for digital assets, and the BWA is committed to working with the Government of India towards this objective,” BWA said.