Binance loses India traders to local firms it recently dominated

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Binance Holdings Ltd. acrimoniously split with its Indian affiliate WazirX in 2022, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange looked near-invincible in the local market while WazirX was flailing. A government crackdown on offshore platforms has abruptly reversed the competitive dynamics.

Since Indian authorities in late December began restricting access to Binance and other foreign crypto exchanges operating there without local registrations, traders have flocked to domestic rivals like WazirX. Many of them are moving deposits across from Binance, according to the local venues.

It’s a welcome reprieve for WazirX and competitors like CoinDCX and CoinSwitch Kuber, which were pummeled by a 2022 taxation regime that drove traders to offshore exchanges. They appear poised for further gains after Apple Inc.’s App Store this week took down the apps of Binance and seven other foreign exchanges after a request from India’s government.

Deposit inflows at WazirX jumped about 250% in the four days following India’s Dec. 28 compliance show-cause notice to nine offshore platforms, compared with the four days leading up to it, according to the company. CoinDCX reopened for deposits right after the event and they immediately began pouring in, CEO Sumit Gupta said.

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“The figures we usually do in 3 months, we’ve been able to realize those in the past two weeks,” Edul Patel, chief executive officer of Y Combinator-backed platform Mudrex, said about deposit inflows and new users. More than 30,000 customers have registered on Mudrex since