Web3 devs, gamers, investors thrive despite India’s crypto policy hurdles

India’s contribution to the global Web3 ecosystem — primarily in software development, gaming, investments and startup funding — increased year-on-year despite an absence of locally tailored crypto regulations.

India’s share of global Web3 developers grew from 5% to 12% in the last 10 years, second only to the United States as of 2024, according to the India Web3 Landscape Report 2024 by Hashed Emergent, shared with Cointelegraph.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Tak Lee, CEO and Managing Partner at Hashed Emergent, pointed out four key factors driving India to the top of global crypto adoption: retail crypto transactions on centralized services, highest trading volumes, institutional adoption and retail DeFi transactions.

Gen Z dominates the Web3 developer landscape in India

The growth is driven by the younger generation, as roughly 80% of all blockchain developers in India are between 18 and 27 years of age. The Indian developers in DeFi, Payments, AI and SocialFi prefer Solana as the go-to blockchain.

Ton, Aptos and Base are steadily gaining momentum across other key sectors, driven by the expanding presence of layer-1 and layer-2 ecosystems, the report noted.

While funding opportunities and builder initiatives like hackathons support initial growth, Indian developers have pointed out employers’ lack of willingness to pay salaries that match global industry standards.

The challenges faced by Web3 gaming projects are the extremely high cost of customer acquisition (CAC) to onboard Web3 users and the lack of quality gameplay beyond financial incentives to retain Web2 gamers. “Therefore, several of these games are now focusing on having great quality games before integrating blockchain mechanics or tapping into Indian gamers’ craze for RMG,” Lee explained.

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In contrast, investments into the Indian Web3 landscape saw a 224% increase in 2024 compared to the previous year — sourced from various avenues such as local funds, ecosystem funds and corporate venture arms of leading exchanges.

Lee told Cointelegraph that the lack of growth capital in the Web3 world, along with the absence of traditional venture/growth/private equity funds, makes it difficult for Indian firms to raise capital, adding:

“Therefore, entrepreneurs explore crowd sales as a way to fund their future growth. Some renowned projects may also explore crowd sales due to higher valuations offered but this is extremely rare and done by the extremely blue chip founders who can raise money from retail with ample certainty and high volumes.”

Compared to the previous years, the substantial growth in Web3 investments in 2024 “signals a gradual recovery, with investors focusing on emerging areas of decentralized finance,” the report said.

India is a global hub for founders and developers, currently home to the second-largest developer market and third-largest founder base globally. 

Some of the main barriers preventing large-scale investments, according to Tak, have to do with the “slower than anticipated growth of some of these startups .“ Unclear regulations and compliances also hinder Web3 investments in India.

Growing Web3 against all odds

Despite an active high-tax environment on cryptocurrency, small-scale crypto investments saw an uptick in India. Traders generally preferred small, frequent trades, with 96% maintaining positions less than $12 with an average of 11x-20x leverage. Females represented 1 in 10 futures traders in India, highlighting the scope for greater participation. 

The report called for reforms in crypto tax deductions and reporting in addition to the need for federal guidance and tax implications:

“India must overcome its negative policy perception that stifles innovation and instead focus on identifying and addressing the pain points faced by stakeholders with effective regulation that will incentivize the Web3 sector to grow and thrive.”

The policy wish list for the Indian Web3 includes the regulatory framework for virtual asset service providers (VASP), tax rationalization, streamlined banking and payment access for Web3 companies, exemptions from VASP regulations and clarity on existing regulations.

Recent regulatory initiatives like URL blocking of locally unlicensed crypto exchanges have resulted in the influx of funds to self-custodial solutions (decentralized exchanges) or domestic exchanges, which are regulated under Indian law.

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