Totality Corp CEO explains why India is still largely untapped for NFTs
Despite ranking as one of the highest adopters of cryptocurrency among emerging markets, the majority of the Indian market is yet to embrace nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Totality Corp Founder and CEO Anshul Rustaggi explained that social and cultural barriers, as well as anti-crypto regulations, are holding back NFTs from mass adoption — particularly in some of the lower-tier cities in the country.
India has a population of 1.38 billion people and is the second-most populous country in the world sitting just behind China. Last month, the United Nations forecast the country to overtake its competitor sometime in 2023.
However, Rustaggi explained that crypto trading and NFT collection are seen as speculative investments — a concept that is frowned upon in Indian culture and sits in a similar boat as gambling.
“India has a very love and hate relationship with speculation. So all of Asia, including India loves speculation. But morally, we like to always say bad things about it,” he said.
Rustaggi explained that even his time as a hedge fund manager in London was seen by his own mother at the time as “basically gambling with other people’s money.”
While studies have found that most NFTs are bought due to their speculative nature, some collections can be seen as a “signal” for wealth and status, such as in the case with the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection which boasts a long list of celebrities and heavy hitters in crypto as hodlers.
However, Rustaggi says this concept hasn’t taken flight in India despite the strong emphasis on “social status” in Indian society.
“In India, social status matters massively, the largest expense we have in India is marriage. On average, 34% of your life’s
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