Home / Capital & Crypto / Indian Bitcoin Startup Ramps up with a New Global Head for Business Development

Indian Bitcoin Startup Ramps up with a New Global Head for Business Development

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:46 PM
Samburaj Das
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:46 PM

Coinsecure, an early Bitcoin-based startup in India that functions as a trading platform and a secure wallet is looking to scale its operations in India and beyond. The company has announced Elizabeth McCauley, as its Head of Global Business Development.

Bitcoin has previously seen its regulatory challenges in the second most populated country in the world. Lately, however, things are looking up for Bitcoin. A country with the world’s largest youth population  and a booming smartphone user base  makes for fundamental prerequisites for the adoption of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, as regulators warm to the idea of its technology and innovation.

Elizabeth McCauley
Elizabeth McCauley

Founded in 2013, Indian trading platform Coinsecure is one of the country’s oldest Bitcoin businesses. In its effort to expand bitcoin’s reach within the country and beyond its borders, the company has hired Elizabeth McCauley as its head of Global Business Development.

McCauley has been an enduring presence in the Bitcoin space and currently serves on the Board of the Bitcoin Foundation and has previously worked with payment processor BitPay.

In its blog post, the company deemed Bitcoin a “global enabler” which has taken significant strides over the past few years with no signs of abating, in spite of “a few hiccups.”

Elizabeth joins the Coinsecure team to help grow our vision in connecting India to Bitcoin. While the network and community learn to adapt and evolve into consensus, Elizabeth will be a key player on the team, to help us understand how we can maintain and quicken the pace.

The quickening of pace to scale is one of the pressing challenges faced by most Indian startups in a highly competitive, growing market and it is no different for Coinsecure.

The announcement added:

We welcome Elizabeth and look forward to a powerful step towards growing Bitcoin across India.

Furthermore, the company revealed that bitcoin’s recent price volatility is seeing a “tremendous surge in daily volumes as well as liquidity at Coinsecure.” With this in mind, the company has added two banks to its growing roster of banks that accept the company’s cache as a bitcoin wallet and trading platform. Indian banks linked to Coinsecure’s operations enable customers to quickly turn Indian rupees into bitcoin and vice-versa. Needless to say, banking connectivity is crucial for Coinsecure and in broader terms – bitcoin adoption within India.

The significance of banking interoperability came to the fore when BTCXIndia, a trading platform and exchange announced the closure of its bitcoin trading platform as recently as May 2015.

“We have today been informed by our bank that they will no longer serve bitcoin businesses,” the notice stated at the time. “We have investigated the possibility to operate through other banks, but it seems this is a general policy in India as of today.”

Other Indian exchanges such as Unocoin have also halted operations in the past due to the uncertainty of Bitcoin law and regulations in the country. Despite its unsteady past, Bitcoin is now gaining acceptance from regulatory authorities and a predominantly young Indian population.

The country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India recently endorsed  bitcoin’s blockchain and the measured approach sans previous clampdowns have seen companies such as Indian Bitcoin wallet startup Zebpay raise $1 million to promote bitcoin awareness within India.

Images from Shutterstock and Coinsecure.