Upcoming ICO: Will Drivezy and Other Indian ICOs Gain Traction?
India’s maiden token sale is unfolding with more upcoming ICOs filling the pipeline. The social-services focused Indicoin ICO was launched in recent days after the startup raised ETH 900 in the token pre-sale amid modest expectations. Cryptocurrencies haven’t really taken off in India yet, with only a fraction of the population reportedly having exposure to bitcoin.
Indicoin is accepting BTC, ETH, LTC and BCH, all of which will be replaced with INDI tokens after the Indicoin ICO.
Meanwhile an Uber-like startup in India is readying its debut in the public token sale market, and it’s a play on the sharing economy. This upcoming ICO dubbed Drivezy will launch in Japan amid an advisory relationship with fintech play AnyPay in the country. The deal is reserved for accredited investors and “subject to regulatory restrictions.”
Peer-to-peer vehicle-and-bicycle sharing company Drivezy has attracted USD 10 million from the equity and debt capital markets from investors in the United States, Japan and some in India. Whether that success can be parlayed over to the cryptocurrency market has yet to be seen, and no doubt upcoming ICOs in India are watching. Drivezy was able to attract that capital under the premise that it accepts bitcoin amid a partnership with India exchange Unocoin, which is a promising sign.
How these upcoming ICOs will be received in India remains to be seen, but the overall tone of cryptocurrencies in the country appears to be cautious. For instance, prominent economist S.P. Sharma is quoted in The Economic Times as pointing out that cryptocurrencies kind of hang in the balance as neither an “illegal” or “legal” form of payment. Indian regulators, meanwhile, similar to many around the world have warned investors about the
Sharma said: “Unless the cryptocurrency is properly and comprehensively regulated and monitored by a robust institution, I don’t see bitcoin becoming a legal currency in India.”
Meanwhile Reserve Bank of India officials have recently said that they are uncomfortable with bitcoin or any virtual currency for that matter. Instead they are exploring the idea of a fiat cryptocurrency as another option to the India rupee.
