PeepalCo, which recently entered stock trading, had plans to diversify into different asset classes since the inception of the company, said Ashish Singhal, co-founder and group CEO. PeepalCo is the holding company of CoinSwitch and stock broking app Lemonn.
Last December, CoinSwitch, one of the leading cryptocurrency platforms in India, announced the launch of an umbrella brand — PeepalCo — to house all its business segments. Earlier this month, the company launched its in-house stock broking app ‘Lemonn’. “We started building crypto products four years ago and other products very early in our journey,” added Singhal.
Despite coming from an unregulated crypto business background, the company did not face any regulatory hurdles from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) whilst entering the broking business.
Singhal said before the company approached markets watchdog for a broking licence, it ensured that adequate guardrails were applied to ensure data, people and entity segregation between CoinSwitch and Lemonn.
On whether the company’s foray into different asset class meant lower commitment towards crypto platform, Singhal said, “When we raised one of the biggest rounds of funding in 2021 of over $250 million, the idea was to scale both of these products through that. Obviously it requires people and money to be able to have that focused approach and solving the deeper problems in both these ecosystems.”
The overall funding environment for startups, Singhal said, will improve in the current year after the last two years’ funding winter. However, investors are now much more judicious in allocating capital and are funding startups with better underlying values rather than just notional values.
“I think 2022-2023 was one of the worst, but the market is picking up now and you would see many companies raising funds. Even our fund — CoinSwitch Ventures — invested in over 15 companies in 2023. So, the deal share in the market is picking up quite well,” he said.
Commenting on the recent Bitcoin halving event on April 20, he believes that it might lead to some rise in the cryptocurrency prices but its overall impact will only be known in the next six months. Further, he said more countries could emulate the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) move allowing Bitcoin ETFs.
“I believe that this (crypto ETF/ETN approval) is going to be true for every country out there. Obviously, the US has taken the initiative and it will flow downwards to many other countries,” he said. The UK SEC has reportedly allowed professional traders to invest in crypto ETNs, while the Hong Kong counterpart allowed spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF approval.
In India, however, regulating crypto remains a distant reality as the Reserve Bank of India has often remarked that cryptocurrencies pose a significant threat to the financial and monetary policy stability of the country.