Crypto exchange CrossTower opens trading platform in India

Cross Tower India will offer up to 40 different cryptocurrencies, with the first 1,000 customers enjoying free BTC worth up to 500 INR

CrossTower, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange and investment firm, has launched a trading platform in India.

According to Reuters, the digital currency exchange has hired a team of 35 people as its initial staff, with the target being to have up to 100 people working at CrossTower India over the next nine months.

CrossTower India will bring “global expertise, technology, regulatory knowledge, and security standards to India”, the exchange said on its homepage.

CrossTower’s entry into India follows major exchange Binance in seeking to tap into the growing Indian crypto market. As well as Binance, CrossTower India will have to contend with competition from local players such as Zebpay, WazirX and CoinDCX.

Indian crypto investors and traders who register and place their first trade with the new trading platform will enjoy a Bitcoin giveaway of up to 500 INR. The offer will be available for the first 1,000 trades.

Apart from BTC, CrossTower India provides access to 40 different digital assets, including Ethereum (ETH), Maker (MKR) and Compound (COMP).

The company’s entry into India comes at a time when the country is seeing a massive increase in crypto adoption despite the not-so-friendly regulatory approach by the government.

Recent statistics show that India’s crypto-asset market soared between April 2020 and May 2021, jumping from $923 million to $6.6 billion. A Global Crypto Adoption Index released in August by Chainalysis showed India ranked second behind Vietnam in 2021.

In another survey, growth in India’s cryptocurrency saw about 9% of respondents say they either used or owned crypto, higher than some of the world’s top markets like China, the United States, the UK, Japan and Germany.

Launched in the US in 2019, CrossTower was, in August this year, ranked among the top cryptocurrency exchanges in the market, placing in CryptoCompare’s AA rankings alongside Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini and Bitstamp.