Inside the tsunami of NFTs in India

Vimal Chandran’s mother often worries about her 30-something son’s obsession with pictures of “monkeys on the internet.”

The monkey pictures she’s worried about aren’t just regular images, of course. They’re NFTs (non-fungible tokens) of apathetic primates. But the Bored Ape Yacht Club isn’t exactly a household name yet in the South Indian city of Palakkad, where Chandran, a visual artist, currently lives.

Until last year, Chandran himself hadn’t seriously looked into NFTs. This changed after Mike Winkelmann, or Beeple as he’s better known, sold his NFT for US$69 million at a Christie’s auction in March 2021. Soon, Chandran found himself minting and buying NFTs.

In December last year, Chandran’s NFT, titled WAGMI (an acronym for we’re all gonna make it), became the most expensive NFT sold on the NFT platform of Binance-owned crypto exchange WazirX.

While WAGMI was sold for 8,088 WRX (WazirX’s native token) or about US$7,700, WazirX’s total NFT sales have crossed 308,000 WRX since the launch of its NFT platform last June.

The crypto exchange is just one of the many companies that are riding on what can only be described as a tsunami of NFT offerings in India. BeyondLife Club, Ikonz, BollyCoin, and Social Swag are some of the startups that have thrown their hat into the ring.

The rise of NFTs and cryptocurrencies in India has seen its fair share of ups and downs as it has in other nations like Singapore and Indonesia.

India’s banking regulator effectively hampered the growth of crypto-related startups in 2018 by barring banks from dealing with crypto exchanges. This ban was lifted only in 2020, with the intervention of the Supreme Court. But crypto-related businesses are still not in the clear, as there isn’t really a legal framework surrounding these companies.

However, on February 1, the country’s finance minister announced a 30% tax on gains from crypto-related assets. While enthusiasts bemoaned the steep taxes, the announcement put talks of a possible crypto-related ban to rest.

The timing couldn’t have been better. Globally, NFT sales volumes amounted to US$24.9 billion in 2021 compared to US$94.9 million the year before, according to data from DappRadar.

Industry players might be reluctant to put a definite valuation on this evolving space.

“Imagine a world where everything you see, from the buildings, roads, and artworks, are all made up of NFTs; it’s hard to put a tag on that. It’s changed so much already so quickly,” says Sandesh Suvarna, co-founder of WazirX’s NFT marketplace.

A celebrity-backed gold rush

A number of India’s NFT startups were launched in 2021 and quickly drew in investors. For example, Faze Technologies, a cricket-themed NFT platform, raised US$17.4 million in a round led by Tiger Global in November 2021.

An open but exclusive world

Are there really takers?