News

OKEx Expands Into India’s Crypto Market via Partnership With Local Exchange

Despite ongoing uncertainty regarding cryptocurrency regulation in India, major global crypto exchange OKEx has just made another push in the country’s market.

On Feb. 14, OKEx partnered with India’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform, CoinDCX, to launch a new crypto futures product in India.

As part of the partnership, OKEx will make a major step into the Indian cryptocurrency market, enabling more liquidity with its extensive expertise in developing world-class futures, CoinDCX said in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Specifically, the partnership purportedly unlocks CoinDCX’s new crypto futures product, DCXfutures, that will enable users to trade futures contracts with major cryptocurrencies with up to 15x leverage. 

According to the firm, the futures contracts will be available for at least eight coins including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), EOS, Cardano (ADA), and Tron (TRX). Additionally, users will be able to trade perpetual futures contracts with Bitcoin and Ether, the announcement reads.

According to the firm, maker fees will account for 0.2% at the DCXfutures launch, while the service will be initially open for select users on an invitation-only basis. Once available for the general public, users will be able to access DCXfutures from a single wallet from Q2, 2020.

India’s potential to drive mass adoption of crypto

Zac Zou, head of OKEx India, emphasized the role of India — the world’s second biggest nation — as a primary country behind the mass adoption of crypto:

“As one of the largest economies in the world, India is primed to be the driving force behind the  mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, which is why we are keen on adding more equitable currencies to the ecosystem. We believe having a variety of options to transact digital currencies will bolster the growth of economy in India as it positively impacts both crowdfunding and institutional funding”

Sumit Gupta, co-founder and CEO at CoinDCX, outlined the rapidly increasing demand for futures trading in the Indian crypto market. Gupta noted:

“With the huge potential of cryptocurrency markets to accelerate economic growth and wealth generation in India, we believe that this collaboration takes India one step closer to joining the ‘5 trillion dollar club’ as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, allowing us to avail of new opportunities and take on new challenges.”

Cointelegraph contacted both OKEx and CoinDCX for additional comments on the partnership and will update this article if we hear back.

News of the new partnership comes on the heels of recent court hearings regarding the existing complicated stance of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) toward crypto. During the hearings, the Supreme Court asked the RBI to clarify its position as to why exactly it enforced a nationwide banking ban on the country’s crypto market. Cointelegraph has recently reported on the latest developments in this regard, while CoinDCX’s Gupta published a public call for a “sensible regulation” approach.