Global crypto markets have been in a free fall over the last few weeks erasing all gains of 2021 with Bitcoin and Ether leading the bloodbath.

The focus on crypto markets has intensified again this week amid more wild volatility that has long-alarmed global watchdogs.

As countries like the US, UK, EU, China and India push for greater accountability with tighter rules for crypto, entrepreneurs are beginning to hunt for safe havens.

In early March, one of the most successful blockchain entrepreneurs to emerge from India now based in Dubai, Polygon's Sandeep Nailwal made a bold statement - "The brain drain is absolutely crazy", he said. Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng agreed with Nailwal, calling Dubai "The Wall Street of crypto"!

Since then, there's been an uncovering of a phenomenon that could leave India behind in what is internet's next big revolution Web3 and blockchain.

A whole host of startups operating in the decentralised sphere, are keen to leave the country, or so we hear!

They are headed to the Cayman Islands and other tax havens while operating out of easy-to-do-business locations such as Dubai and Singapore. India's regulatory confusion towards crypto is not making business sense for these entrepreneurs they claim!

Having said that, most of India’s Web3 entrepreneurs along with their teams of talented developers say that they'd rather stay if they didn't have to worry about regulatory resistance.

So is the Web3 brain drain more hype than reality? If not, can India afford to lose its already scarce Web3 talent? To discuss this CNBC-TV18 spoke to Alok Mittal, Co-Founder of Indifi Technologies; Pratik Gauri, Founder & CEO of 5ire; Nitin Sharma, Co-Founder of Antler India and Ankit Wadhwa, Co-Founder & CEO of Rario.

Watch video for more.

First Published:May 12, 2022 8:20 PM IST