Unocoin, a leading crypto exchange in India, is struggling to stay afloat. Why? Because India has promulgated a law banning cryptocurrency-related trading in the country. So why is Unocoin sticking around?
There are 14 employees left at Unocoin, after the exchange shaved off 86% of its workforce. The exchange is trying to recover its huge losses and compete in the commercial market again.
Legal Action
The famous Unocoin suffered this setback due to legal action taken against one of its daring moves. In the year 2018, the founder members of the firm, Harsh B, Abhinand Kaseto, Sathvik Viswanath, and Sunny Ray, decided to install a Bitcoin ATM at a public mall in Bengaluru. But the plea for this cause was declined. It led to their legal arrest by a central crime branch team of India. The company had until this point accumulated a huge investment of $1.5 million from its investors, including Blume Ventures and Bitcoin Capital, to name a few.
The failure to install the Bitcoin ATM, along with the legal proceedings that followed, caused the firm to go into a tailspin. On being questioned, founder Sathvik Viswanath defended the use of Bitcoin in the country by trying to put the earlier quoted statement of India’s Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, in context. He defended their stance on the fact that the minister had not called it “illegal tender” but had said that “it was not legal.” It surmounted to the fact that investments could still happen.
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Unfavorable Crypto Laws
The story of banning cryptocurrency trade in India did not end with Unocoin, nor did it start. Another popular firm engaged in trading, Coindelta, has also been flushed down. Its failure was due to the unfavorable crypto laws in the country and its staunch implementation in the country.
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