This is not an easy time to be a cryptocurrency backer in India, nor to be Ripple anywhere in the world. So spare a thought for Navin Gupta, the managing director of Ripple India.
In February, Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley announced in his budget speech that he would launch a crackdown on the use of cryptocurrencies, saying: “The government does not consider cryptocurrencies as legal tender.”
It has since issued 100,000 tax notices to cryptocurrency investors suspected of concealing profits.
Meanwhile, Ripple’s price, measured through its XRP token, has fallen from $3.75 in early January to $1.15 at the time of writing; its market cap is down from $145 billion to $44 billion.
None of this, however, seems to faze Gupta, who believes that Ripple’s fundamental purpose in India – cross-border remittances – insulates it from the surrounding noise.
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| Navin Gupta, Ripple India |
“Ripple has really invested time with the regulators for the last two years,” says Gupta, speaking to Euromoney in Kuala Lumpur in early February. “What we want regulators to understand is that the use case of Ripple is trying to reduce friction in international transfers, not trying to speculate or make more money or be someone who launches a coin and then runs away.
