Crypto investing is evolving beyond its early hype cycles. Regulation, investor awareness, risk management and new technologies are changing how people trade digital assets, all while raising pertinent questions about what responsible participation should look like.

At TechSparks 2026, Rajagopal Menon, Vice President at WazirX; Satish Mishra, CTO of Pi42 and SharkExchange; and Sharat Chandra, Founder of EmpowerEdge Ventures, joined Swetha Kannan, Deputy Editor at YourStory, to discuss the changing crypto landscape, the need for regulatory clarity, and the growing role of AI in trading.

India’s crypto market has historically been a dynamic space, growing rapidly during the 2021-22 bull run, where Menon noted that WazirX’s spot markets processed close to $48 billion in transactions during that period. This was succeeded by the taxation measures introduced in the subsequent Budget that changed the market significantly.

According to Menon, the resulting environment of these changes has placed Indian exchanges at a disadvantage compared with foreign platforms. Domestic exchanges must deduct tax at source (TDS) and operate within the 30% tax framework, while foreign exchanges have not faced the same requirements, he argued. “I think a stable environment or a better environment would be that the same rules apply for everybody, so that Make in India is made for Indian exchanges,” he shared.

Menon also pointed to a shift in trading activity. As spot trading volumes declined, futures and derivatives began gaining traction. He expects this segment to see significant adoption in India.

Moving to the question of regulation, Chandra shared that exchanges had helped educate investors about different crypto assets and the importance of understanding risks, but that gaps in the regulatory framework remained.

Source link