• While crypto winter persists, several exchanges have looked to India as the next big untapped market.
• Binance too, has been eyeing the region, but regulations and taxes are making the environment untenable. 
• So much so that Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, doesn’t currently view the region as viable market at the moment.

Much like the African continent, India is brimming with potential, especially when it comes to mobile solutions and technologies given the sheer size of its population. It is the reason why many big tech firms prioritise India as a key market, and naturally why cryptocurrency companies have created a presence there too.

One such company is Binance, with the massive crypto exchange working to onboard as many people in the region as it can. That said, there seems to be a few hurdles currently holding it back, according to CEO Changpeng Zhao, who spoke with TechCrunch recently.

Here Zhao did not hold back his thoughts on what it has been like to operate in the region. “To be honest, I don’t think India is a very crypto-friendly environment,” he told the publication during the TechCrunch Crypto Conference earlier this week.

As the publication notes, the head of one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world coming forward with such a statement is quite something, especially given the stern stance that the Indian government takes when it comes to dealing with technology companies.

The reason for his statement stems from the high taxation that crypto players face in India, which is making operations in the region increasingly untenable.

“If you are going to tax 1% on each transaction, there is not going to be that many transactions,” Zhao pointed out.

“A user could trade 50 times a day and they will lose like 70% of their money. There is not going to be any volume for an order book type of exchange. So we don’t see a viable business in India today. We just have to wait. We are in conversation with a number of industry associations and influential people and trying to put some logic there,” he added.

While the current situation is difficult, it looks like Binance is hoping to remain in the region, but would need to address taxation in particular when it comes to operating there.

“We are trying to get this message across, but tax policies typically take a long time to change,” explained Zhao. “Binance goes to countries where regulations are pro-crypto and pro-business. We don’t go to countries where we won’t have a sustainable business — or any business, regardless of whether or not we go,” he continued.

Whether Binance can indeed get the Indian government to lessen the tax paid on crypto transactions remains to be seen, with it yet to bend the knee to any other technology company to date. As such, we may not see the 30 percent taxation on all owned virtual currencies in India change in the coming months.

[Image – Photo by Ewan Kennedy on Unsplash]
[Source – TechCrunch]