COINDCX BUYS UAE CRYPTO TRADING PLATFORM BITOASIS

Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX has acquired Dubai’s BitOasis for an undisclosed amount, marking its entry into the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region and adding $270 million to its assets under management.

“We are starting our expansion with the MENA region because it is one of the fastest growing markets, and very transparent from a regulatory clarity perspective,” CoinDCX cofounder and chief executive Sumit Gupta told ET.

“We were an active investor in BitOasis. Around last year, we did a strategic investment and we've been seeing the progress of the company since then,” he said. “The rate at which they have grown over the last 12 months led us to this conviction that we have to sort of partner at a deeper level.”

The UAE has a clear regulatory framework for cryptocurrency trading, supervised by the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) and supported by the country’s central bank, Gupta said. “That is one thing that is missing from the Indian market right now, but we are slowly moving in that direction,” he added.

BitOasis also has a licence from the Central Bank of Bahrain.

Gupta expects CoinDCX’s spot trading volumes to grow by 30-40% from the current $8 million per day after the merger.

Backed by investors including Pantera, Steadview Capital, Kingsway, Polychain Capital, B Capital Group, Bain Capital Ventures, Cadenza, Draper Dragon, Republic, Kindred and Coinbase Ventures, CoinDCX said it managed assets of $500 million prior to this acquisition.

Bitoasis, a broker-dealer services company started in 2016, has 750,000 registered users across 15 countries and $6 billion in total trading volume. It faced a setback in November 2023 when UAE regulator VARA suspended its licence citing non-compliance with regulations.

According to Gupta, BitOasis has resecured the licence after completing all checks.

BitOasis has so far raised $40 million from investors such as CoinDCX, Wamda Capital, Jump Capital, Pantera Capital and Global Founders Capital.

Gupta refused to comment on the deal size, the company’s valuation and the returns that BitOasis’s investors have made after the acquisition.