a16z-backed CoinSwitch publishes Proof of Reserves with $131M crypto balance

Indian crypto trading platform CoinSwitch today published a proof of reserves (PoR) report that showed the exchange holds total crypto assets worth $131.09 million at the time of writing.

The Andreesen Horowitz (a16z)- backed firm claimed 85% of its crypto assets (worth $112.99 million) are held on custodial wallets while 15% (worth $18.1 million) are held on exchanges such as CoinDCX, WazirX, Binance, and CoinSwitchX.

In its report, the crypto platform also explained it holds more crypto assets than its users, adding the data is from an independent report of its holdings and balances from November 2022.

"This report shows that every crypto asset our users have bought on our platform is held by us on behalf of the users, and is accounted for," the firm wrote in its blog, adding that its cash holdings Indian rupees are 7.21 times the Indian rupees balance of its users.

Further, users can independently verify the holdings using any publicly available blockchain explorers, it added.

CoinSwitch Co-Founder and CEO Ashish Singhal said, "In 2023, we will aim to give you access to all information, good or bad. This year we will make our processes and systems crystal-clear for users as we look to build a wealth-tech destination."

In its report, CoinSwitch also claimed its crypto assets are "held in state-of-the-art custodial services with industry-leading security standards, including but not limited to multi-party computation and a maker-checker framework".

It added that does not reinvest or borrow against users’ crypto assets.

CoinSwitch's proof of reserves report comes a few weeks after it published its annual report, which found that only 8% of the 19 million crypto investors on its platform are women.

However, it added, investing patterns between men and women are largely similar in India in terms of allocations towards top crypto assets, meme coins, and Decentralised Finance (DeFi) tokens.

CoinDCX, another leading Indian exchange, published its own PoR in November, while WazirX is said to be working on its own report.

With these reports, Indian crypto exchanges are attempting to be seen as safe, secure, and trustworthy. To them, this is going to be critical for onboarding crypto users when the next bull run comes knocking.