India's Leading Bitcoin Exchange Raises $13.9M From Block.One, Coinbase Ventures

India's largest cryptocurrency exchange, CoinDCX, has raised the equivalent of $13.9 million in a Series B funding round led by Block.one, the creator of the software that runs EOS.

This follows on a May 2020 round for $2.5 million from Polychain Capital and Coinbase Ventures, who returned to participate in this new round of funding. Other participants included Uncorrelated Ventures, Jump Capital and Mehta Ventures.

“This has been the most exciting year for CoinDCX. While the pandemic forced everyone indoors, CoinDCX scaled up exponentially and continues to do so," Sumit Gupta, CEO and co-founder of CoinDCX, said in a statement.

The company is building on momentum engendered by courts lifting India's de facto ban on cryptocurrency trading in March.

Gupta specifically cited further development of the firm's mobile app, CoinDCX Go, as a priority for the new funding.

CoinDCX provides a fiat on-ramp to its users and trading, but it provides other basic services as well. It enables lending, trading on margin and the ability to stake cryptocurrencies that earn rewards for doing so.

Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer said that interest in crypto had already been growing heading into 2020 but that it accelerated through the pandemic.

"With the increased interest in digital currencies, CoinDCX's role in making cryptocurrencies accessible to everyone in the world's second most populous country is even more vital," Blumer said in a press release.

Bitcoin's recent rally over $20,000 has been advantageous to Block.one. Blumer recently announced on Twitter his firm has "accumulated well beyond our previously announced 140,000 #BTC position."