Exclusive Interview with Ramalingam Subramanian, Head of Brand and Communications, CoinDCX

CoinDCX, since the day it got established, has added many feathers to its cap. From being the first-ever hybrid and world’s most versatile crypto exchange to India’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform, CoinDCX has reigned the crypto world with flying colours and is still reaping the benefits of many success stories. The DCX team visioned to popularize the practice of crypto trading among the common man which stood out well to the masses and that is one of the major reasons why CoinDCX operates as the most loved crypto trading platforms of the country.

Last week, the Coin Gyaan team got an opportunity to interview one of the most prominent personalities of CoinDCX. The team got luckier to get involved in a one-to-one conversation with Ramalingam Subramanian, Head of Brand and Communications, CoinDCX who shared a powerful line of thinking and upcoming ideas to nurture the brand in the most efficient way. Here we are presenting to you the discussions we had during an elite round of interview.

1. Let’s start with the beginning of CoinDCX. As we know it was started by Sumit and Neeraj. When did you join their team and how do you see the journey of CoinDCX so far?

Ramalingam: I joined CoinDCX in August 2019. Before joining CoinDCX I was running my own brand management firm for the past 4 years. I moved on from my firm and joined CoinDCX when I received a call from Sumit Gupta, our CEO. The world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies has always intrigued me as I myself am a strong believer in decentralization and democracy. Having a technical background myself, I could understand the nuances of the technology very early on. However my understanding of the large scale use cases and widespread applications is something that I owe the founders for today.

Today I understand the importance of cryptocurrencies more than ever and it has changed my life. Hence, now I am committed like never before to spread the joy and ensure maximum people #TryCrypto. This has been the idea behind launching this massive campaign as well. My journey has been amazing, challenging but enjoyable throughout.

2. CoinDCX recently completed its second anniversary. Best wishes to you and your team. How do you see 2020 and what kind of plans do you have for this year?

Ramalingam: Thank you for compliments Monesh. 2020 has been exciting so far. As the petitioners in the SC, we were overjoyed when we won the case and it has opened up numerous opportunities for us. In one month after the SC judgement, we on boarded 50,000 new users through our #TryCrypto initiative. Our aim is to spread the message of mass crypto adoption in India. We see India to be the biggest potential market and by the end of 2020 we look forward to massive adoption and contribution from India.

The current health crisis aside, we see huge potential that had been somewhat suppressed by the confusion created by the RBI circulars. With that behind us, cryptocurrencies are in for a great journey in India and soon India will lead the world in this direction.

3. Earlier this year CoinDCX received $3M Series A funding. How will you use this funding?

Ramalingam: CoinDCX strongly believes that mass adoption of cryptocurrencies will happen through active participation from all partners in the space. Decentralization which is a core concept of crypto, also drives our belief when we think of adoption. Hence we have been looking at adding partners along the way.

Our recent funding reinforces this belief. We had already partnered with top global exchanges like Binance, OKEx and Huobi in the past. Now we raised strategic investments from Polychain, HDR Group, operator of BitMEX and Bain Capital Ventures. This strategic investment will help us two fold, strengthen our #TryCrypto movement for mass adoption of crypto and help us build a safe and secure system for our consumers. We have already introduced multiple innovations in the past and this round will help us further our belief in this regard.

4. What is your opinion about the partnership with crypto.com? Do you think Indian consumers will benefit from this partnership?

Ramalingam: CoinDCX believes in growing in a decentralized manner. Crypto.com is a major player in the industry and has a fabulous range of products. This partnership will help us introduce these amazing products to the Indian market and help crypto.com gain access to the high potential Indian market.

Today we have opened up INR markets for their two tokens, namely CRO and MCO. Our aim is to introduce safe and secure instruments to the Indian markets and also allows these major tokens an opportunity to Indian liquidity. This is a win-win-win partnership for all, CoinDCX, Crypto.com and the Indian market.

5. Whenever you list a coin on your exchange, what are the things to keep in mind?

Ramalingam: We are very picky about the projects we list, irrespective of whether it is paid or unpaid listing. Our analyst evaluates every project from the listing request form that we receive. And we approach projects ourselves too. A very thorough due diligence process goes into work. The team behind the project, their background, road map, developments, use cases, a lot of these play an important role. We also see how the project fits in the India market, how we can enable growth of these projects, how we can contribute towards adoption.

We are not just about listing; a long partnership with the project is what we are looking for. We are of the firm belief that these collaborations will mutually benefit both sides. While on one hand, it will help the overall Indian crypto ecosystem to grow, on the other hand, it will help the projects to expand their reach in India and get access to the biggest crypto growing market – India.

6. Ever since I told my Telegram Group that I am going to take a written interview, Mr. Ramalingam, CoinDCX’s head of brand and communication, since then many people have sent me several questions. I am asking some of these questions. Does not show position after taking entry in margin trading? Still Instant Withdrawal takes 10 to 12 hours? What would you like to say on this?

Ramalingam: Thank you for the questions and I would like to thank each and every community member for raising these questions. Yes these questions are pertinent. I’ll discuss the Instant Withdrawal issue first. Today our data shows 98% of all transactions for Instant Withdrawals are really instant, below 5 seconds. This leaves us to the remaining 2%. We apologize for this 2% at the forefront. However, there is a challenge here.

First, we are going through a global pandemic and this has affected everyone, including our banking channels. Banks need to send acknowledgements for payments that they recieve from our accounts. Now during the course of multiple transactions, it is natural that a small percentage of all transactions gets rejected or fails to send acknowledgements from the banks. During normal business, this gets resolved almost instantaneously with reconciliation from our end. However now this is not the case during this pandemic season and some of the transactions take an unusually long time to get a confirmation from the banks. Unfortunately, this results in confusion on the part of the customers as they are unable to see the backend and hence it gives them an unpleasant experience.

Second, there are still certain transactions that fail due to human errors from the customers side. During a normal course of business this is not a challenge, but during this time reconciliation with the banks delays the process again. Hence at times customers face a challenge. We are resolving this issue on a daily basis and in the last few days we have seen a 100% success rate on various occasions. The system will improve further in the coming days.

7. Many times people ask the question whether CoinDCX is an Indian exchange because CoinDCX has its headquarters in Singapore and an office in Mumbai. What would you like to say on this? And what is the plan for expansion of CoinDCX outside India?

Ramalingam: CoinDCX is India’s largest and safest cryptocurrency exchange. This has been our belief since we started. We were also the petitioners in the Supreme Court fighting for the India community. Yes we have a presence in Singapore and have a large global customer base. But this is a matter of pride for the Indians, that CoinDCX has grown beyond the borders as well. With regards to our global expansions, we have already begun the same since the last 6 months and we now have a significant portion of the trading community outside of India. In the times to come we’ll be entering more markets and will like to take our mission further.

8. What was your reaction when the Supreme Court removed the ban imposed by the Reserve Bank of India? Do you think the Indian government should bring a law on this in the future so that things become easier for crypto investors?

Ramalingam: As one of the petitioners, we strongly believed that the verdict would be in our favour. The court case aside, a strong legal framework is the need of the hour. We understand that it is a challenging piece of work however we have been committed to help the government and the parliament in every possible way.

Must read: How To Buy Bitcoin in India 2020 Legally – Complete Guide

Over the last 6 months, we conducted the Unwind series, where we got the crypto community leaders together to deliberate and discuss the way forward. Soon we’ll see positive developments as well in this regard.

Conclusion

Ever since the SC has lifted the RBI’s banking ban on crypto trading in India, the exchange and trading have witnessed a sharp rise in volumes. India is a market with a huge potential for cryptocurrencies once said Sumit Gupta, co-founder and chief executive officer of CoinDCX, which eventually turned out to be true.