Reading Time: 14 minutes

Sumit Gupta with CoinDCX joins us to discuss how you can trade 200+ Coins with high liquidity today.

Sumit is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CoinDCX, India’s largest and safest cryptocurrency exchange and liquidity aggregator. Beginning his journey in the world of business at the age of eight, Sumit showed an early proclivity for entrepreneurship, selling video games for profit in his hometown. When bitcoin began gaining traction in 2014, Sumit saw the potential of leveraging blockchain technology to enable financial inclusion. He actualised this vision by founding CoinDCX, which has grown to become India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Prior to establishing CoinDCX, Sumit worked in Tokyo for renowned technology giant Sony, where he served as a software engineer. Sumit also founded ListUp, one of the first e-retailer companies with a location-based app. Under his leadership, ListUp had grown into a multimillion dollar business within one year.  He holds an Undergraduate and Master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

*Disclaimer. None of this information is financial advice.

The following transcript was created using artificial intelligence. There will be some grammatical errors below. 

00:01:02:15 – 00:01:11:29

Richard Carthon: Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of crypto current your host here Richard carthon. And today I have a very special guest we have Sumit Gupta with Coin DCX.

00:01:12:01 – 00:01:15:08

Richard Carthon: EX How are you doing today. I’m doing well. How are you.

00:01:16:07 – 00:01:28:06

Richard Carthon: I am doing well I can’t complain. You know we’re all having to endure covered right now. But you know we will persevere but I really appreciate you spend some time with me today in speaking with our audience.

00:01:28:08 – 00:01:31:10

Richard Carthon: Why don’t you start off by giving us a little bit of background on yourself.

00:01:31:12 – 00:02:02:19

Sumit Gupta: Sure sure Richard so about my background I have always wanted to be an engineer and about about 70 years back. I completed my bachelor’s and master’s in electrical engineering from I.T. Bombay which is one of the top premier colleges of the country post my graduation. I began my professional career in software engineering field with Sony and we’ll get 20 headquarters during my Sony estate. Interesting that that is the first time I heard about Bitcoins.

00:02:02:21 – 00:02:23:15

Sumit Gupta: And that was a time when Bitcoin was also gaining traction. And I heard it from one of my friends and from that I got into the store distributed ledger technology and what entered into the world of crypto currencies. Unfortunately I did not invest a good amount back then. But in 2016. Yes.

00:02:23:22 – 00:02:32:09

Richard Carthon: Real quick I just want to ask you So give us a quick timeline so you say your first introduction was from a friend back working at Sony around what year was this when it happened.

00:02:32:21 – 00:02:35:06

Sumit Gupta: 2014 2014.

00:02:35:08 – 00:02:36:02

Richard Carthon: OK cool.

00:02:36:04 – 00:03:09:03

Sumit Gupta: Yes. So I really was doing a job. I did not invest in bitcoin that time but in 2016 when I was back in the country after losing my job that was the first time I started investing in Bitcoins from my savings. And after that for like couple of years I did a lot of good trading. I used to trade for like like three to four dollars a day. I along with my co-founder needed. We did a lot of good trading. We also used to do a lot of other drugs across international exchanges. So it’s been roughly a couple of years like 16 and 17.

00:03:09:05 – 00:03:23:09

Sumit Gupta: We were very active into the first base and 2017 was the year when we also sort of building an exchange by ourself and we started cutting the platform in 2017 and 2018.

00:03:23:12 – 00:03:25:00

Sumit Gupta: We launched 26

00:03:26:29 – 00:03:41:06

Richard Carthon: when we talk about like you know just going forward. So you learn about it back in 2014 2016 you start trading and learning about it and then you just say I want to create our own exchange. Like how did you even get to that point.

00:03:41:22 – 00:04:13:27

Sumit Gupta: Oh yeah. So that’s a very interesting journey. So you know in those two years when I needed to were actively trading we realized there are tons of problems and challenges we had to go through while our trading journey is starting with very basic problems that the liquidity was negligible in India and debt exchanges and we had a tough time creating or doing out begrudges. So we used to use all the exchanges that were available at that time and they were only having bitcoins available right on the platforms to buy and sell.

00:04:14:06 – 00:04:44:28

Sumit Gupta: So what we used to do was be used to buy bitcoins from the exchanges and then we used to send those bitcoins to an international exchange exchange like the tracks that time and used to look at trading. So that was something that a lot of fire up a lot of the people in our net looking not good for trading that book used to do they used to use in exchanges for yet on Temple bathrooms and they used to send those crypto assets to international exchanges for a good product or for trading and then they used to bring back those assets back to an exchange and then sell it.

00:04:45:09 – 00:05:19:00

Sumit Gupta: So that was a very cumbersome experience for us and we had a tough time you know trading on and exchanges that time. Right. So there were other challenges as well like in terms of you know sending bitcoins and in terms of opportunities so there were a lot of exchanges we had to use that time. So then we cycle you know the idea that rather than users moving the funds to international exchanges why can’t we bring that liquidity back in in exchange. And that is all part of building 26 as the most liquid exchange rate.

00:05:19:02 – 00:05:56:07

Sumit Gupta: So the bitcoin this is all but it is you can use our platform to enter and exit out of the crypto that is you can use our field on ramp off from tenants plus you can also use liquidity or stop global exchanges. So with the one 26 account you can do all of that crypto journey and that does what we would always wanted to have but it was not available on any of the exchanges or international exchanges that bank. So that’s how we thought off this idea of being a liquidity aggregator and you know me making a platform which is highly liquid and sort of all those portraying the it’s often treated as well as an investor gotcha.

00:05:56:09 – 00:06:27:00

Richard Carthon: OK. Which makes a lot of sense. Yeah. In the early days of crypto training from understanding this from talking to a lot of people it was not easy. The user interface was not a quick and easy experience to be able to come in and quickly to be able to start trading especially on the international side. So you come you see this problem and you see Coinbase you’re like wow they really made this user experience very seamless. How do we know bring this to our country or how do we bring this on an international scale. And so you come up with coin DCF.

00:06:27:02 – 00:06:39:20

Richard Carthon: So tell me more about like how do you come up with the name and then after coming up with the name. How did you start to get your first customers like how did you build this out and where you’re currently at right now in the company.

00:06:39:27 – 00:07:14:09

Richard Carthon: Short shot. So doing only this one thing was very clear that you know exchange for any exchange business liquidity is the core. So leaflets all of the challenge off lack of liquidity. Right. So we had a very good liquidity right from the very start because we were aggregating liquidity from global exchanges. So that is something that a lot of Indian traders and investors wanted to have in the platform and they didn’t want to use a lot of these different different exchange accounts and just like us that are you know a lot of people in our network who wanted to use one platform to solve all of their problems right.

00:07:14:11 – 00:07:48:06

Richard Carthon: In terms of usability in terms of features in terms of the experience that you just talked about. So. So when we launched the platform on on day one better than a lot of people who created a telegram community. Right. So we saw a telegram community being created about 26 and that was where we saw a lot of these discussions happening and people were talking about organically. There was a lot of traction a lot of news websites that went about 26. And that was a time when a lot of people also you know was encountering the same challenges and were looking for a platform which solves all these problems.

00:07:48:08 – 00:08:20:15

Sumit Gupta: So we got our first calls and it was us organically by word of mouth. Then what happened gradually was lot of YouTube was also started creating videos on 26 and it started talking about how do we aggregate liquidity from violence or who will be and how. On one 26 platform people can get access to indict a capital export markets so they don’t have to now go and have an account with violence. They don’t have because in the case of I mean there was a lot of backlog. People had to wait for several days in order to have an account there.

00:08:20:20 – 00:08:54:00

Sumit Gupta: And we have seen that journey date. So there were a lot of exchanges people wanted to use but they had to create and maintain accounts with them. There was a very long learning curve in terms of understanding how those exchanges operate somewhat money in the end and they want to really comfortable when they are you know putting their money in exchanges in terms of security in terms expedients in terms of offering so that any number of things that comes into play there. So when we you know when we launched the platform people started covering it and fences started talking about it and then we started getting those users organically.

00:08:54:03 – 00:09:28:00

Sumit Gupta: We initial first year we didn’t do any marketing it was all organic. You know primarily driven by the Indian community which absolutely loved the product especially the kind of products that we were launching. So one interesting product that we launched was D6 and stuff. Now this is one of our flagship but the way it operates is it allows any Indian to buy and sell 300 plus compressors directly with Indian rupees and that is instant. So if you can buy as low as one dollar worth of any customer that if you want to buy Eyeota you can actually buy iota within getting rupees.

00:09:28:02 – 00:09:34:28

Sumit Gupta: So that is something we launched off here on 18 months back and that really got good traction from our Indian community.

00:09:35:04 – 00:09:39:01

Sumit Gupta: So we wanted to get into capital they just use that our product

00:09:39:03 – 00:09:53:29

Richard Carthon: and that’s really cool and actually wants you to go on that a little bit more I mean the Supreme Court of India overturned the RBI spanking ban against crypto and you know you were one of the first banks to integrate with bank transfers. Q Just talked a little bit and how important that is.

00:09:54:08 – 00:10:01:24

Sumit Gupta: Oh yeah absolutely. So the way we are looking at it is banking channels are the gateway which connects the Fiat economy and the capital economy.

00:10:01:26 – 00:10:33:08

Sumit Gupta: So before you know from the last couple of years because for the bank so a lot of not banks were not supporting exchange businesses. So we had to use an innovative be to get a method. Anyone who used to buy and sell capital from the platform bellhops could transfer the money to another individual sitting on the other side. That is sometimes inefficient and the order matching gets complicated at times but we handle it smartly there. We were doing this making almost instantly within a matter of seconds you will be able to complete the transaction.

00:10:33:10 – 00:11:08:24

Sumit Gupta: So that is something that we did. But we don’t. But the recent Supreme Court ruling had a tremendous impact in terms of opening the whole industry. So now the bridge that you know the money from you know the Fiat economy is connected well to the economy and people if they want to invest in bitcoin they can easily do that. I have banking channels and because of our strong relationship with the banks and the stringent KYC process that we have. So there a you know set of documents that we collect from every Indian from every Indian user and only Indian people who want to KYC verified can access are Indian I am not in markets.

00:11:08:26 – 00:11:25:11

Sumit Gupta: So once you do that I see verification which is very well aligned with off the top Anglo banking banknotes. So the banks are also very comfortable and for the same reason the when the first exchange to enable banking support in Indian market is with Well yeah.

00:11:25:13 – 00:12:05:03

Richard Carthon: And it’s just important for everything with you you need to do with trading to have that secure way of being able to go to an actual exchange and make investments. A lot of unfortunately with a lot of foreign countries as we know you have to set up a VPN you have to find some way to just get into a platform that will allow you to buy and sell cryptos in being able to have access especially to such a large population such as India and given a direct path to setup a way for banking is very crucial for just people having a way to invest but then also having a banking opportunity.

00:12:05:05 – 00:12:41:00

Sumit Gupta: Absolutely absolutely and once we integrated with the banks there was a clear surge in terms of the traffic and the volumes that Indian exchanges were doing specifically 26. We saw 10 times jump in growth in sign ups on the platform. So that what that means is there were you know lots of people who are sitting on the bridge sitting on the fence and waiting to hear the regulations and the judgment of Supreme Court and then they can invest in it. So that is something that was a lot of a lot of people were waiting for and when that judgment came out there was a surge in terms of sign ups in terms of trading volumes in terms of activity.

00:12:41:02 – 00:12:44:03

Sumit Gupta: What exactly would you on the platform right.

00:12:44:09 – 00:13:04:23

Richard Carthon: Which is great. And another thing that you did with coin DC that I appreciate a lot and the whole reason why I started crypto current in the first place was the education piece and I saw that coin D6 allocated like one point three million dollars just to education. Can you expand on that a little bit short shot also.

00:13:04:28 – 00:13:24:23

Sumit Gupta: You know crypto is a field which is very close to our heart. And you know during the early days we also realized that we were talking to a lot of people you know we were we were chatting with people in our friend network relatives. And one thing that was very clear is most of these people don’t really understand the you know the technology part of it. They were investing.

00:13:25:00 – 00:13:55:23

Sumit Gupta: They were not very knowledgeable in terms of how old you know Bitcoin optics what is distributed ledger technology what is blocked in and and so I think that that was a big gap that we wanted to fill in. And we also expect that there will be next set off millions of people who will end and invest in the first base in India and we want to be sure that when they invest they they make sound investment decisions before investing. And you know so that they can navigate through the world safely.

00:13:55:27 – 00:14:27:10

Sumit Gupta: It’s a very volatile market. So we find that you know there’s something that the strong need to educate people about capital in India especially in a country like India. And then it is new and very few people not exposed to a lot of space for the same reason we thought of pledging one point three million dollars to education and launch the a campaign to an end this is one of five step. So right now it is roughly four to five million people in India are somehow connected to the world in India.

00:14:27:12 – 00:15:03:06

Sumit Gupta: So we feel that in the next few years this number will grow to 50 million. And that is what our objective is to take this five million to 15 million over the next few years. And in order to achieve this mission 1 1 first step for us you know is to educate people and as I as a first starting a step we have I look at it roughly 10 crores. That is one point three million really focused on educational initiatives doing a lot of seminars offline online events and also coming up with a portal which is called B6 loan which is a full fledged education platform in their local India languages.

00:15:03:08 – 00:15:06:11

Sumit Gupta: So that’s something that we are working actively on

00:15:08:02 – 00:15:08:18

Richard Carthon: that’s great.

00:15:08:20 – 00:15:38:22

Richard Carthon: And you know the fact that you’re trying to get it up to 15 million and even when you think about the entire population of India and even the world that we’re still so early in and just this script on block change base and you know the sky’s the limit of where this is going. And as we start to get a little bit more adoption and getting more people educated so that they go and tell their friends and families of like hey this is something that I start to get a part of and it helped change my life from financial freedom or just financial opportunity or what have you.

00:15:38:24 – 00:15:58:15

Richard Carthon: Or just having just more secure ways to access your funds. I think crypto could be a great way to help hedge against everything that governments try to take away with with taking their money or what have you just giving you more control of your financial freedom yeah.

00:15:59:19 – 00:16:17:19

Richard Carthon: And on that as well I mean one appreciate you explaining a lot of everything that’s been going on with coin DC and what you’ll have going but I know that you’ve been in the crypto space for years now and there are all kinds of projects that are out there what are some crypto and budgeting projects that currently have your attention that you’ve been looking at.

00:16:18:09 – 00:16:37:08

Sumit Gupta: Yeah. So at the moment I mean they are I personally I’m I’m more of a you know a tracking bitcoin at the moment. There’s a lot of events that are coming with it in terms of projects. I mean have have been not following very closely any specific project but I’m excited to see how smart or smart phone adoption takes place.

00:16:37:10 – 00:17:09:27

Sumit Gupta: But but personally in terms of the time I’m primarily just just looking at between these days right I got you and with that you know we’re we’re approaching the having event and I’m sure once this episode comes out it will have already passed. But what are you expecting in the near term crypto space to happen what do you think people should be potentially looking out for and again. Everyone listen this is not financial advice and this is all his own opinion but what are you potentially looking out for.

00:17:10:05 – 00:17:41:01

Sumit Gupta: So in terms of having I’m I’m not going to comment on the price but I think I’m more bullish on the in the long term primarily because the fundamentals are getting stronger over time. In terms of what’s going to happen in space I think this is one economy which has a very high population one point three billion population fastest growing economy and with very high penetration internet and mobile penetration. What I’m expecting is that a lot of these people will enter into the space post solving.

00:17:41:05 – 00:18:18:13

Sumit Gupta: And once the regulations are clear I mean the order going in the right direction the evens that are happening in India are very encouraging and we feel that the next you know in the times to come and see some smart regulations coming from the Goldman side. I think that will happen when we know when that happens. We do see a lot of these new entrepreneurs coming in and doing the Green party out in space. So that’s going to happen which will create a lot of job opportunities. We might see multiple billion dollar companies coming out from the Indian capital ecosystem in the next few years.

00:18:18:15 – 00:18:22:26

Sumit Gupta: So this is how I’m looking at the overall Indian could play space yeah and

00:18:24:16 – 00:18:55:24

Richard Carthon: just like you said I think all of that’s in the horizon and very probable especially with Kobe shaken up the global economy the way it has and the effect that it’s gonna have on like just a regular markets that haven’t even happened yet that are on the way. I think there’s gonna be a major pull into the crypto space so I think everyone should pay attention to what you just said and and be looking out for it because it’s I think it’s only a matter of time before more and more money and opportunities are poured into the crypto space.

00:18:56:22 – 00:19:02:28

Sumit Gupta: Absolutely I think this 2020 and 2021 is going to be very exciting for the crypto in our industry as a whole.

00:19:04:12 – 00:19:26:29

Richard Carthon: Oh absolutely. I mean we’re not even that the markets out of roughly 230 billion dollar market cap right now and I think this easily gets to a trillion. And I think unfortunately the global pandemic is going to help catapult the crypto market cap getting closer to a trillion a lot sooner this decade than it would have otherwise Yep. SHARP

00:19:28:16 – 00:19:37:24

Richard Carthon: But other than that summit really appreciate your time. Thank you so much. What is a final thought that you want to leave with all of our listeners here today.

00:19:37:28 – 00:19:40:20

Sumit Gupta: Yeah so I would just like to come in a few things.

00:19:40:22 – 00:20:12:23

Sumit Gupta: One is the markets are relaxed as everyone has seen the markets sort of volatile these days. So I invest safely and I keep learning about the space. There’s a lot to learn and educate others as well so that they also make sound investment decisions. And also I would recommend the listeners to visit 26 dot com platform and let us know your feedback. I hope you will enjoy the experience reading experience and the massive liquidity that we have. It’s a very unique platform based primarily for professional traders and investors.

00:20:13:13 – 00:20:15:19

Sumit Gupta: So yeah try it out.

00:20:17:06 – 00:20:22:21

Richard Carthon: Excellent. Well what are some different ways that people can connect with you and learn more about Coin DCX

00:20:24:16 – 00:20:28:21

Sumit Gupta: Sure so I’m fairly active on Twitter and LinkedIn. So you can

00:20:30:13 – 00:20:53:01

Sumit Gupta: follow my hand along with that but it s empty GBP. You can just search for medical outgoing DC D.C. and and follow 26 telegraph and Dallas well that is where we you know we typically our share of updates about then and complete ecosystem about what we are bringing up next and quite B6 Excellent.

00:20:53:03 – 00:20:56:14

Richard Carthon: Well again summit really appreciate your time today and for everyone listening. Stay Crypto Current!