Made-in-India Blockchain Crosses $10 Billion Market Cap

In a possible first, a blockchain founded by three Indians breached $10 billion in market capitalisation last week.

Since February, Polygon (previously Matic) has seen its market cap jump 10x owing to increased adoption by players in gaming, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and DeFi (decentralised finance). In March, Nasdaq-listed Coinbase allowed users to trade Polygon’s token.

“Growth has been significant. Some part of it is speculation — as with any cryptocurrency — but we have also expanded our vision and scope of work,” said co-founder Sandeep Nailwal. “A combination of real-world application and user adoption has had a snowball effect.”

Between January and May, the number of applications built on Polygon, which is based on the Ethereum blockchain, jumped 8x to almost 400. One such application was used by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey to mint his first tweet as an NFT, said Nailwal.

“We want to establish India as a blockchain powerhouse,” he said, adding that their goal is to become the third most valued crypto project in the world behind Bitcoin and Etherum.

As of writing, Polygon’s market cap of over $13 billion puts it among the top 20 crypto projects globally, according to Coinmarketcap.com

In April, Polygon, whose other co-founders are Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun, partnered with Infosys’s consulting arm to include NFTs, DeFi and insurance in its ecosystem.

The Indian blockchain startup space is still nascent compared to the US, Europe, and China. In a space dominated by western players, Nailwal says, it took time for the industry to notice their work.

“There is a premium on Western projects. We have to work five times harder to get attention,” he said. “But once we rebranded, brought on more people and built a global team, people started to take notice.” The company also added a European co-founder Mihailo Bjelic to its team recently.

In 2019, Polygon’s token was distributed through Binance’s Initial Exchange Offering and the startup raised over $5 million. But regulatory uncertainty in India, including rumours of a possible blanket ban on crypto, has made it hard for the blockchain industry to grow and left investors and talent wary of India. Changpeng Zhao, founder and chief executive of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, recently told ET that crypto curbs could cause India to miss out on a huge market and several multi-billion-dollar firms.

Source: ET