CoinSwitch Kuber Appoints Ramesh Bafna as Chief Financial Officer

CoinSwitch Kuber has named Ramesh Bafna as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as part of its evolution into a crypto-focussed wealth tech platform. Primarily launched as a crypto exchange, CoinSwitch is betting on Bafna's experience in the financial shaping of brands such as Myntra and Flipkart. Sarmad Nazki, the former CFO at CoinSwitch Kuber, resigned from his position in a bid to explore other opportunities. As per his LinkedIn bio, Nazki took up the C-suite job at the crypto exchange in May 2021.

In his 18-years of working experience, Bafna has worked on the finance workstreams at software major Wipro.

“I have been following the fintech space for years and am fascinated by the potential it holds for India. I am delighted to join CoinSwitch,” the newly appointed CFO of the crypto exchange said in a press release.

Founded in 2017 by Ashish Singhal, Govind Soni, and Vimal Sagar Tiwari — Coinswitch is funded by several big venture capital firms. These include Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Paradigm, and Coinbase Ventures.

In September 2021, the company claimed that it had swollen into ‘India's biggest crypto exchange' with over ten million users that it had touched at that time.

Of the total 10 million users, seven million were active users on the platform at the time, with a monthly transaction volume of Rs 15,138 crore.

“I am delighted Ramesh Bafna is joining us as we take the next big leap in our journey. Ramesh's experience in solving problems at scale in high-growth companies will help us strengthen and expand CoinSwitch to serve the next billion people,” said Singhal, the co-founder and CEO of CoinSwitch.

The crypto climate in India has been hot these last few months.

On April 1, India's tax laws on virtual digital assets (VDAs) came into effect. This levied a 30 percent tax to be deducted from any profits generated via crypto trading in India. In addition, India's requirement of one percent TDS on each crypto transaction is also in action.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is also gearing-up to release a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) around the crypto tax system introduced this year in India. As per Sangeeta Singh, the chairperson of CBDT, these FAQs will be released around July 1.

Exchanges often struggle in India to partner with banks to allow transfer of funds and in April, CoinSwitch and some others reportedly disabled rupee deposits through a widely-used state-backed network, alarming investors.

While no official data is available on the size of India's crypto market, CoinSwitch, in May estimated the number of investors at up to 20 million, with total holdings of about $6 billion (roughly Rs. 46,580 crore).