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Crypto exchange CoinDCX’s India entity, Neblio Technologies, reported an over 9X year-on-year (YoY) jump in its net profit to INR 4.4 Cr in the financial year 2020-21 (FY21), largely helped by the March 2020 Supreme Court verdict on lifting the banking ban on cryptocurrency trading in India.

In FY20, the startup had reported a profit of INR 45.6 Lakh.

In August 2020, CoinDCX said that it had recorded a 38% month-on-month (MoM) growth since its inception in 2018 as more Indians started showing interest to participate in the global crypto economy following the verdict. 

In fact, CoinDCX’s operating revenue, which comes from the sales of its services, surged more than 527% YoY to INR 38.9 Cr in FY21 from INR 6.2 Cr in FY20.

On the other hand, the crypto exchange’s expenses also rose over seven-fold in FY21 to INR 40.7 Cr from INR 5.7 Cr reported in the prior fiscal year.

The jump in expenses was largely driven by an increase in the spending on employee benefits, which stood at INR 10.9 Cr in the year as against INR 3.3 Cr in FY20.

CoinDCX’s other expenses also grew over 17X to INR 28.7 Cr in FY21 from INR 1.7 Cr in FY20.

CoinDCX, founded by Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal in 2018, competes with the likes of WazirX, CoinSwitch Kuber, Unocoin, among others. It claims to have over 3.5 Mn users on its platform. It operates crypto investment app CoinDCX Go, professional crypto trading platform CoinDCX Pro, and investor education platform DCX Learn. 

CoinDCX became India’s first crypto unicorn in August last year after closing a $90 Mn (INR 670 Cr) Series C funding round, led by Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group, Coinbase Ventures, Block.one, Polychain Capital, Jump Capital with participation from several other investors.

In FY21, CoinDCX completed multiple funding rounds. In December 2020, it raised $13.5 Mn in its Series B funding round led by Block.one, with participation from Jump Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and more. Prior to that, in May, CoinDCX had raised $2.5 Mn in a strategic round.

In 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stated that it would not deal with or provide any service to the entities dealing with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. In March 2020, the Indian apex court lifted the ban, making buying, selling and transferring of digital currencies legal in India. 

However, the cryptocurrency transactions and hence, crypto exchanges, are not yet out of the woods as the RBI is seeking a complete ban on cryptocurrencies. 

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also probing crypto exchanges, including CoinDCX, for alleged foreign exchange violations.

Meanwhile, CoinDCX cofounder Khandelwal told last year that it would plan to go public as soon as the government or the situation allows because IPO gives legitimacy to the industry.