Indian Web3 Professionals Interested in Developing Metaverse, Blockchain Gaming: KuCoin CEO

Despite regulatory uncertainty in times of a bear market, India continues to attract the attention of global crypto players. Speaking to Gadgets 360, KuCoin’s Johnny Liu revealed that Indian talent Web3 seems to be targeting the metaverse and blockchain gaming sector. Product development in these areas revolves a lot around coding in C++, Golang, JavaScript, Solidity, Python, Ruby and Java – all of which are needed in the blockchain sector.

“As India effectively moves into the digital engineering-powered Web3 space, approximately 41 percent of interested Web3 professionals want to work as developers in the space. Over 40 percent of Indian Web3-inclined professionals are more interested in metaverse, NFT and blockchain-based gaming for work, surpassing the global average,” KuCoin CEO and co-founder told Gadgets 360.

The Indian government brought the cryptocurrency under its tax regime earlier this year. All income received from crypto transactions is taxed at 30 percent from April and 1 percent tax deducted at source (TDS) on crypto transactions is also in effect in India from July.

Despite criticizing the levied taxes, the Indian crypto community continued to invest in the sector.

“We saw about 5.6 million new users in the first half of 2022, up 659 percent growth, and a large portion of these new users were from India. Indian users increased by 1,251 percent year-on-year in 2021,” noted Liu.

India’s crypto activity led to $172 billion (roughly Rs. 13,85,812 crore) in cryptocurrency-related activities from July 2021 to June this year, claimed a report by Chainalysis published in September.

Companies at the forefront of the crypto revolution, such as Coinbase and KuCoin, are looking for blockchain talent from India.

“As a fast-growing crypto market, India clearly has huge potential in leading the crypto and blockchain industries. And we will continue to invest and educate the investor community on safe trading practices to improve the ecosystem,” Liu added.

The cryptocurrency market is considered extremely lucrative by many beginners. About 45 percent of millennials and 46 percent of Gen Z are approaching cryptocurrencies as a retirement plan in the US.

“In terms of protecting investors from ever-increasing cyber threats, we expect some stringent policies and regulations from global lawmakers. In addition, we hope that there will be more awareness of safe investments,” Liu stressed.