Introduction

In early 2022, India was ranked second on the Crypto adoption index as per blockchain and research firms, Chainalyis and Finder. The entire web3 revolution finds its origin in crypto with the Bitcoin boom and crypto adoption being essential in onboarding people to the world of decentralization. During the pandemic, we saw centralized exchanges like CoinDCX, Coinswitch and WazirX drive crypto adoption and saw intensive growth in their scale. The crypto investment wave has opened doors for a lot more people to explore NFTs, dApps, and DAOs. 

However, maximisation of web3 adoption is still a challenge as the user onboarding experience remains extremely substandard, expensive and unautomated. This friction that the user experiences, even with a clear intent to begin their journey in web3, leads to a significant dropout rate (nearly 70-90%) faced by companies. The onboarding process is not only cumbersome but also expensive, as transaction fees budge users at every step of the process.   

If a non-native user were to begin using any web3 app today, here’s how tedious the process would be. They’d visit a web3 app only to understand the need for crypto to operate on it. They’d leave the app and visit an exchange, submit KYC and sign in. After which they’d purchase crypto and pay a transaction fee, a user would ideally have to wait 15-20 minutes for the purchase to complete. Finally, the user transfers the crypto to his app wallet and pays a transaction fee for the same. After all this hassle, one can finally buy, play or invest on the app. 

Here’s where Alpyne comes in. Alpyne is a web3 onboarding solution that provides simple and secure APIs. It helps businesses reduce their drop-off rates through INR support onboarding and provides them with a one-click INR transfer plus KYC, banking, reconciliation, etc. as additional advantages all done within a safe and secure environment.

For fintech and web3 companies, transaction verification still remains semi-automated as UTR (Unique Transaction Reference) Number verification that helps verify a bank transaction is still managed almost manually. Alpyne’s proprietary technology and business model allows it to automate this entire process. Alpyne also provides an instant liquidity solution for currency and crypto conversion. Thus, providing cheaper, faster, and simpler in-app onboarding support for users.

Durgaprasad and Shabahat are the aptest founders for this problem. The experience and domain knowledge they bring to the business is unparalleled. Durgaprasad, B. Tech from IIT Bombay is a second-time founder and comes from a core finance background as he worked at Alantra in the Cross Border M&A Division. Shabahat, B. Tech from VNIT is a second-time founder too. Prior to Alpyne, he provided blockchain consulting services to many global crypto and software companies. He has been a blockchain developer since 2016 and caught the web3 curve way ahead of time. Together, the founders have worked on several innovative crypto projects in the past like crypto-as-a-cashback service and crypto retail payment service.

Market Opportunity:

As of December 2021, global crypto users stand at 295 Million. Moreover, the total inflows towards cryptocurrency was $172 billion making it one of the largest crypto markets in the world. There is a significant urgency of adoption that has been witnessed, The DeFi market size including total value locked is $94 billion, NFT Sales stand at $25 Bn, and VC funding in crypto games in 2021 is $4 Bn.

100X Thesis:

As the Web3 economy gets built, dApps will want ways to directly onboard users with Fiat. That's where 100X sees an opportunity. Alpyne is the only embedded On-Ramp solution focused on India. Other players do not support INR due to a lack of regulatory bandwidth. The team background gives us more confidence as we see their experience and grit allowing them to power through all challenges. 

Conclusion:

Alpyne is a perfect melange of a relevant problem meeting the right founders to solve it. Alpyne has the potential to be the face of web3 onboarding in India as it aims to lead the charge in onboarding the next 100 million users onto the ecosystem. Alpyne’s technology, business model and founder history, make it extremely conducive to fueling growth for businesses and simplifying INR transactions in the ecosystem.