To fill the gap of an accurate measure of Indian crypto market, CoinSwitch Kuber launched an index to track the rupee-based crypto markets early this month. Until now, investors in India had to rely on global crypto indices based on US dollar. But these indices do not give the true picture of the Indian market.
The rupee-based crypto index will be known as CRE8, the crypto rupee index. CRE8 promises to offer real-time info of the crypto market based on actual trades on CoinSwitch’s platform. It represents 85 percent of crypto market capitalisation.
“Indian investors and market observers no longer have to second-guess how the Indian Crypto market is behaving. They can view it in real-time at Coinswitch’s crypto index,” says Ashish Singhal, co-founder and CEO of CoinSwitch.
“CRE8 is a demonstration of our commitment to bring more transparency to the Indian Crypto market and equip users with a simple, easy-to-understand measure of the Indian market. The index enables Indian users to make informed investment decisions,” he further adds.
Constituent cryptos
The index has a base value of ₹1,000 and the start date is October 1, 2020. The percentage change for the day on June 13 was -15.83 percent. There are eight constituents of the index in different proportions.
These constituent cryptocurrencies are bitcoin (36.20%), ethereum (23.40%), binance coin (11.10%), ripple (6.70%), cardano (6.30%), solana (6.10%), polkadot (5.20%) and dogecoin (5%).
Computing the index
To become a part of the index, the constituent cryptocurrency must be among the top eight crypto assets by market capitalisation and listed on the CoinSwitch platform.
The constituents should neither be a stable coin nor a derivative of any existing index component. The index is finally calculated on the weighted, market capitalisation (square root) methodology.
The index will be rebalanced on a monthly basis and reconstituted on a quarterly basis.
However, some experts believe that investors should refrain from investing in cryptocurrencies as of now.
"Domestic cryptocurrency investors should not invest at this time, as markets are unregulated and therefore highly manipulable. Consumer protection does not exist, liquidity is limited, and the government's position in the near future is unknown. After regulations are outlined and legitimacy is established, investing in cryptocurrencies will be risk-free," says Gaurav Mehta, Founder, Catax— Simple Crypto Taxes.
Meanwhile, in another news — cryptocurrencies fell sharply on Monday due to massive sell-offs in past few days.
Bitcoin was trading 12.75 percent lower at 4.20 IST to trade at $23,909, ethereum fell 16 percent to trade at $1,222, Binance Coin traded 12.78 percent lower, Cardano was 12 percent down, and Solana was 15.93 percent lower, according to the CoinDesk data at 16.15 IST.