Shalini Nagarajan

<div id="highlights-block_6299e4fe84c1f" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The CRE8 index measures the performance of the Indian crypto market in rupees, rather than US dollars</li>
 <li>Dollar-denominated crypto indexes aren’t accurate representations for Indian investors, CoinSwitch’s CEO said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch on Thursday launched the country’s maiden benchmark altcoin index to track the performance of the rupee-based crypto market.



Based on real-time transactions on the CoinSwitch app, CRE8 — the <a href="https://coinswitch.co/blog/coinswitch-cre8/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Crypto Rupee Index</a> — tracks eight of the most highly-traded cryptocurrencies in the Indian market: bitcoin, ether, BNB, XRP, cardano, solana, polkadot and dogecoin.&nbsp;



“The index addresses a gap in the market. Until now, Indian users had to rely on international [indexes] denominated mostly in US dollars to assess the market,” Ashish Singhal, co-founder and CEO of CoinSwitch, told Blockworks.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“These [dollar indexes], however, do not provide a true picture of the Indian market as they do not take into account the demand and supply specific to the Indian rupee-based market, nor the INR exchange rate.”</blockquote>



The index represents the total market value of all cryptoassets traded in the Indian market relative to a base date of October 1, 2020, and a base value of 1,000 Indian rupees ($12.90), rather than in US dollars. Data will be refreshed 1,400 times a day to ensure the latest updates for observers and will be amended to include new constituents each quarter.&nbsp;



The CRE8 index was last up 0.88% at press time, but is down 44% in the past 12 months.



In the US, investors can track various similar benchmarks, such as the <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/index-family/digital-assets/cryptocurrency/#indices" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">S&amp;P Cryptocurrency Index</a> and the <a href="https://www.nasdaq.com/crypto-index" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nasdaq Crypto Index</a>. Digital-asset investing firm CoinShares also maintains several <a href="https://coinshares.com/products-services/index-strategies" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">indexes</a> that track cryptoassets, designed to suit investors with distinct exposures.



Valued at nearly $2 billion, CoinSwitch is a prominent crypto exchange in India that is backed by investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures, Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital. It has 18 million registered users, according to company-provided figures.



Trading volumes in India plummeted <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/04/27/first-mover-asia-trading-on-indian-crypto-exchange-continues-to-slump-following-new-tax-laws-cryptos-higher/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">as much as 60%</a> in April after the government <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/indias-crypto-tax-takes-effect-with-industry-fearing-it-will-stifle-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">imposed a 30% tax</a> on crypto earnings, which some criticized as a drastic move that crushes the digital asset economy of the country.



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