WazirX is one of the biggest crypto exchanges in India. It was founded in 2018 by Nischal Shetty, Sameer Mhatre, and Siddharth Menon. Nischal Shetty has been a prominent figure in the Indian tech scene. Before WazirX, he founded Crowdfire, a popular social media management tool.

The motivation of the founders behind establishing WazirX was to address the growing demand of digital assets in India by creating a platform which is robust and user friendly. The founders envisioned a platform that could easily handle large trade volumes of transactions efficiently while also providing a seamless trading experience. 

WazirX was launched when a period of regulatory uncertainty was ongoing in the Indian crypto market. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had imposed a banking ban on transactions related to crypto, which posed serious difficulties to the crypto exchanges in India. Despite having to face all these obstacles, the founders stayed determined to offer a reliable crypto exchange platform. They introduced innovative solutions like Peer-to-Peer (P2P) trading to facilitate INR deposits and withdrawals, which enabled users to trade cryptocurrencies directly with each other. 

In 2019, WazirX was “acquired” by Binance, one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges. The “acquisition” was soon to face much scrutiny, but there was now access to greater resources, technology and a bigger user base. 

Since its creation, WazirX has grown significantly, adding various cryptocurrencies to its platform which in turn helped to largely increase its user base. Various new features were also added to the platform such as –  

• Staking – This feature allowed users to earn rewards by staking their cryptocurrency. 
• Smart Token Fund (STF) – This feature enabled users to invest in different crypto portfolios which were maintained by experienced crypto traders. 
• WazirX NFT Marketplace – In this feature, a marketplace was launched for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which provided the artists and creators with a platform to sell their digital art. 

WazirX has also partnered with various blockchain companies and projects to expand its products and improve liquidity. The aim of these partnerships is to provide the users with access to a wider range of cryptocurrencies and services. 

WazirX also has a native utility token, which is called the “WRX Token”. It has seen various developments which include listings on other exchanges and increased use cases within the WazirX ecosystem. The WRX token holders get different benefits like reduced trading fees and participation in platform governance.  

Emphasizing security, WazirX has implemented advanced security measures, including two-factor authentication (2FA), regular security audits, and cold storage solutions to protect user funds. 

WazirX and Binance have recently announced a $50 million Blockchain India Fund in alignment with its vision of making crypto accessible to India. There are more than 6 million users registered with WazirX. The total trading volume of WazirX is $5.4B per month, and it continues to grow at an exponential rate.