To tap into the festive season that began with Ganesh Chaturthi on Friday, Indian crypto exchanges are ramping up hiring, and planning product launches and large-scale advertising campaigns to add new retail investors.
“Indian market is all about saving and spending and gifting during the festive season. Approached right, bitcoin and gift vouchers can be an interesting option for users to consider as more awareness activity is expected across the industry,” said Sathvik Vishwanath, cofounder of Unocoin. “We are making our platform technically and operationally prepared for the festive season.”
Crypto exchanges are betting big on bitcoin giveaways to entice customers. Unocoin had a coupon code to give bitcoins worth Rs 200 for Ganesh Chaturthi. The exchange has tied up with ecommerce companies and brands where users can redeem gift vouchers purchased using bitcoin.
“Our development team is coming up with new coupon codes, especially for the festivals. We are testing the server load to deal with a surge in the customer transactions,” Vishwanath said.
Crypto exchange WazirX, which has more than 7.5 million users, has product launches lined up including the launch of its decentralised exchange,
about which ET reported first in July.
Several crypto exchange executives said there has been a surge in demand for gifting from retail investors.
“Crypto gifting is a part of our product roadmap. This will give Indians the opportunity to send crypto to their loved ones as easily as they send emails,” said Rajagopal Menon, vice president of marketing at WazirX.
Along with product launches, crypto-selling platforms will launch large-scale campaigns to bring more users into their fold. Currently, more than 15 million Indians trade cryptocurrency.
“The festive season coincides with the upcoming T20 tournament so we will be planning on a 360-degree surround campaign to capture the attention of audiences in the upcoming weeks,” said Ashish Singhal, cofounder of CoinSwitch that recently surpassed the 10-million-user mark on its platform.
Singhal said the platform expects to almost quadruple organic traffic with the additional campaigns and offer more than Rs 20 lakh in rewards on social channels to add new users during the festive season.
All top crypto exchanges are also ramping up hiring and building capacity to deal with the expected surge in user base and trading activity. WazirX said it has increased employees from 50 to more than 200 this year and will continue to add more during the festive season.
Crypto exchanges, flush with venture money as well as profits, will use the festive season to educate users across India about the new asset class.
“During the festive season, CoinDCX is aiming to create more awareness and to share knowledge on crypto through DCX learn. Through our marketing initiatives, we’ve always looked for ways to entice and educate new investors,” said Ramalingam Subramaniam, head of brand and communication at CoinDCX, which recently entered the unicorn club – privately held companies valued at over $1 billion.
Bitcoin rewards company GoSats, which allows users to accumulate fractions of bitcoin when people shop from over 120 brands listed on the platform, including Flipkart, Amazon, Swiggy, BigBasket and Myntra, said it will triple its user base during the festive season. The company which was launched this year has already given away more than one bitcoin to its users, chief executive Mohammed Roshan said.
