Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX launches staking rewards for three coins

CoinDCX has become the first major Indian crypto exchange to launch staking product, meaning its users can now earn returns for holding certain coins.

At launch, CoinDCX supports three coins: Harmony (ONE), QTum (QTUM), and Tron (TRX). The annual returns for ONE, QTUM, and TRX are 8-10%, 6-10%, and 5-10% respectively, Sumit Gupta, co-founder and CEO of CoinDCX, told The Block. The exchange doesn't charge any commission or fee for the staking service, said Gupta.

Users will have to hold a minimum balance of these coins in their CoinDCX wallets to earn rewards. For Harmony, the minimum balance is 100 tokens (currently worth about ~ $1), for Qtum it is one coin (~$3), and for Tron (TRON) it is five coins (~$ 0.1).

Notably, CoinDCX is offering staking rewards via its partner exchange Binance. It means users will be given rewards based on the rewards CoinDCX receives from Binance, Gupta told The Block.

CoinDCX said it would support more coins in the future for its staking product. The product comes two months after the exchange's $2.5 million funding round, which was backed by Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital and others.

CoinDCX rival WazirX is also working on launching a staking product later this month, founder and CEO Nischal Shetty told The Block. Shetty said WazirX would initially support coins like Tron and EOS and then bring in support for all eligible tokens that are listed on the exchange.

Several cryptocurrency exchanges offer staking services, including Coinbase, Binance, Binance.US and Bitfinex. Venture firms and custodians also provide staking rewards, including Fenbushi Capital and BitGo, among others.

Update: This story has been updated to include comments from CoinDCX CEO Sumit Gupta and WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty.