Indian cryptocurrency exchanges lost over 75% monthly trading volumes in last six months

moneycontrol.com:

In the first six months of 2022, top crypto exchanges such as WazirX, CoinDCX, Bitbns and Zebpay, among others, lost more than 70-75 percent of their trading volumes on a monthly average basis. Following the July 1 implementation of the 1 percent TDS (tax deducted at source) on virtual digital assets (VDAs) that was announced in the budget, the situation has only worsened.

While industry stakeholders and experts remained hopeful, terming it a cyclical event, they cautioned that smaller exchanges may face the risk of going bust, even as larger ones may have to slash costs by cutting jobs.

According to data accessed from CREBACO Global, a cryptocurrency research and analysis firm, monthly trading volume on WazirX, which was acquired in November 2019 by Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, monthly trading volume plunged from $38.98 million in January to $9.6 million in June 2022, dropping by 75.18 per cent. Zebpay’s monthly trading volumes fell 72.83 per cent from $10.67 million in January to $2.90 million in June, while Bitbns’ trading volumes dropped by over 50 percent from $15.39 million to $7.33 million over the same period.

WazirX is the largest crypto exchange in the country, facilitating more than 50 percent of trades in India.

Gaurav Dahake, CEO, Bitbns, told Moneycontrol, “We are seeing a situation like this for the third time. A similar scenario played out in 2018-19 as well. The only difference is, this is happening at a larger scale this time. A lot of exchanges have expanded their teams, hiring hundreds of people.”

“Back then, most teams were very small, WazirX too had 12-13 people. We didn’t hire as much last year but we are hiring now because it’s a good market for hiring. From here on we will