Xiaomi Wants Regulatory Clarity Before Venturing Into Crypto In India

What Happened: Multinational electronics company Xiaomi Corp XIACF is open to expanding its financial services business to include cryptocurrency, but only after it is clear on the regulatory environment.

Manu Kumar Jain, managing director of Xiaomi India, told the Economic Times that the company’s financial services business would only venture into crypto after gaining a better understanding of how to be compliant with local laws in India.

“We will want to wait for all the regulatory things. Of course, crypto is an area, which is extremely interesting, and is the biggest buzzword, and is doing exceptionally well. But, we would want to understand more on the regulation side,” he said.

Why It Matters: Xiaomi’s financial services business grew by 95% during the first three months of the year, compared to the last three months of 2020.

In fact, the business now includes a complete spectrum of payment, lending, and insurance verticals. The lending platform also facilitates business loans and is expected to launch gold loans in the near future.

According to Jain, the business is now so big that it can no longer be considered a subset of Xiaomi’s internet service business.

“It is no longer a subset because it is big enough, right. In Hong Kong, India, and China in various other places, it is significantly big enough to be an independent business,” he said.

Meanwhile, crypto adoption in India has steadily been on the rise. India ranked third in Finder’s list of countries with the highest rate of adoption.

Finder’s report found that 30% of the country’s citizens own some cryptocurrency. However, at the time of writing, the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2019, is still awaiting approval to be introduced in Parliament.