#TheCryptoSummit Kicks Off Today To Help Decipher India’s Crypto Economy

With an estimated 15 Mn users and a $6.6 Bn market size, the Indian crypto industry may not be the biggest in the world, but it ranks second in a list of countries with the highest crypto adoption rate. We have seen 3x growth in the number of users or investors since 2018 and 7x growth in crypto transactions since last year. This underscores the potential that the Indian market may soon unleash.

Better still, the Indian government is close to classifying cryptos as digital assets, in line with what crypto startups, investors and enthusiasts have called for.

With more than $216 Mn funding in 7 years, India’s crypto and blockchain landscape is maturing at a fast clip and finally getting mainstream attention. So, this is the right time to talk about the scope and future of this emerging sector. And this is one of the key reasons we have decided to host The Crypto Summit — India’s largest crypto and blockchain event. Supported by our amazing partners such CoinSwitch Kuber, Tezos, Polytrade, Persistence and Onfido, The Crypto Summit will be held on September 18-19.

Spread across two days and two stages, The Crypto Summit will host eminent speakers such as Subhash Chandra Garg, former secretary, ministry of finance; Shailesh Lakhani, managing director, Sequoia India; Sandeep Nailwal, cofounder and CEO of Polygon; Raj Gokal of Solana; Arthur Breitman of Tezos; Ashish Singhal of CoinSwitch Kuber; Nitin Sharma of Antler; Jalak Jobanputra of Future Perfect Ventures; Yield Guild Games’ Beryl Li and Raghu Yarlagadda of FalconX, among others.

“The Crypto Summit will be a great platform to showcase the willingness of major players in the cryptocurrency space to work with the government as the latter is close to introducing a set of rules and regulations that will bring certainty to the crypto market. Such events also promote innovation and new-age products being built in the decentralised finance, cryptocurrency and blockchain space that will continue to position India as a technology powerhouse,” said Ashish Singhal, cofounder and CEO of CoinSwitch Kuber.

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The Crypto Summit | What’s In-Store

Through fireside chats, keynotes, masterclasses and panel discussions during the two-day extravaganza, we aim to decode India’s crypto landscape, its applications and use cases, what investors think about the country’s crypto ecosystem, the success stories of India’s crypto startups and much more.

“Events like The Crypto Summit play an important role for a young and nascent industry like the crypto in India. Events like this help bring all stakeholders together (regulators, startups, VCs, retail investors and developers) and open a dialogue so that the entire industry can move forward in a positive direction and contribute to the Indian economy,” said Om Malviya, president, Tezos India.

Here’s a sneak peek!

Is Crypto Going To Be The Latest Pillar Of India Stack?

It would not be an exaggeration to call India Stack — a set of open APIs — the heart of Digital India that revolutionised fintech startups and banking. With Aadhaar as its foundational layer, India Stack combined eKYC or digital identity, Aadhaar-enabled payments system, unified payments interface (UPI) and now, account aggregator.

But to realise the true potential of Web 3.0, there is yet another critical piece that India Stack has to integrate. Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase and angel investor, argues that the missing piece is crypto.

iSPIRT founder Sharad Sharma will explore this missing piece called the crypto stack and its capability to offering a new pool of wholesale capital to drive the coming cash flow lending revolution, during the summit’s opening session.

However, crypto has been facing regulatory hurdles across the world for more than a decade now, and India is no exception. So, in an hour-long fireside chat, 3one4 Capital’s Siddarth Pai will be getting the answers on all things regulations from Subhash Chandra Garg, former secretary at the ministry of finance, who was part of the previous two inter-ministerial committees (IMC) looking into crypto regulations and also chaired one of these committees.

India’s Booming DeFi Landscape 

What bitcoin did to currency was nothing short of revolutionary. It forced central banks to adopt ‘digital currencies’ while El Salvador already declared bitcoin as a legal tender. Now Ethereum is similarly disrupting the world of fintech through decentralised finance, or DeFi.

But what is DeFi, and how entrepreneurs can leverage it to build cutting-edge fintech products for the Indian market?

There will be a masterclass on DeFi 101 that gives a lowdown on wallets, decentralised exchanges and automated market makers. Plus, there will be a host of sessions on this hot segment, discussing how DeFi may help Indian SMEs, the country’s second-largest sector, and help address their financial plight that legacy banks and fintech firms have not been able to solve.

Building Web 3.0 And Metaverse

Blockchain has impacted not only the way transactions are conducted but also the way the internet runs. Powered by blockchain, Web 3.0 is now touted as the next phase of the web revolution, making the internet smart with human-like intelligence and paving the path for the metaverse.

With inputs from the likes of Tezos, The Crypto Summit will hold sessions on Web 3.0 101, how it will reimagine the digital games we play and how metaverse will create an immersive experience for gaming.

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The Journey Of Solana, FalconX, Polygon And The Likes

Through exciting keynotes and fireside chats, we will delve deep into the background and the journey of some storied companies in the crypto industry. From Polygon’s journey to a $10 Bn project to Solana’s road map to gain 1 Bn crypto users to how Tezos is powering the Web 3.0 revolution and FalconX’s 30x revenue growth in a year to emerge as a $4 Bn crypto giant — we will capture it all!

If we are talking about crypto, can we forget all related themes and topics that have become part of every household discussion? Well, we have you covered. We will also explore topics such as:

• Crypto As An Asset Class In A Borderless World
• Reimagining The Games We Play In A Crypto World
• How NFTs Will Propel Creator Economy To A Decentralised Future
• Building And Scaling A Company In A Tokenised World
• Building A Secure And Open Financial System On Blockchain

If you are a crypto startup (a founder or a team member), investor, policymaker or an enthusiast looking for more clarity, greater institutional opportunities and better networking, The Crypto Summit is for you.

View the complete agenda here.

Most Importantly, Pitch42 — Discovering India’s Hottest Blockchain Startups

Most importantly, we are organising Pitch42 at The Crypto Summit in association with BuidlersTribe and Persistence, a sound initiative to discover India’s hottest blockchain startups. At Pitch42, 10 startups will be pitching before 1,000+ delegates, and the top 3 startups will win $25K each from BuidlersTribe.

“The requirements for the crypto market to progress in India would be the same as it would be, say, in the US. Clarity from regulatory bodies, support from the government and having security protocols and infrastructure in place to prevent potential misuse of cryptocurrencies (should help). Events such as this should be able to bring the decision-makers and blockchain entrepreneurs under one roof. There is a deeper mutual understanding in such forums, and all parties are able to appreciate each other’s points of view. Only when we understand each other, do we move forward in a meaningful fashion rather than being caught in a vicious loop,” said Piyush Gupta, founder and CEO of PolyTrade.

As Bitcoin Cash promoter and angel investor Roger Ver puts it, “Bitcoin is the most important invention in the history of the world since the Internet.”

The question is: Will India remain a slow adopter of blockchain, as was the case with the internet? Unlike the internet, the cost of missing out could be much higher. So, whether you are a novice, an investor or an expert in the field of crypto and blockchain, The Crypto Summit is one event that you cannot afford to miss!

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