WazirX

WazirX is the native currency of the India-based cryptocurrency exchange by the same name. The token, also known as WRX, entitles holders to discounts and rebates on the WazirX platform.

WRX price

The WazirX exchange launched in 2018. Founded by CEO Nischal Shetty and Siddarth Menon, WazirX is a centralized exchange that caters to the growing Indian crypto market. One of its main offerings was efficient peer-to-peer trading with Indian rupees. Binance acquired WazirX in 2019; WRX launched on fundraising platform Binance Launchpad in 2020, raising $3 million by selling 15% of WRX’s maximum supply of 1 billion tokens.

At launch, WazirX held 30% of the tokens for the WazirX foundation, 20% for product and marketing, 20% to bolster its partnership and ecosystem, 11.1% for airdrops and 3.9% for trade rebates. WRX’s token release schedule predicts that almost all of the tokens will be in public circulation by the spring of 2025.

WRX’s price barely budged from 2020 through to April 2021, stagnating at about 10 cents and dipping as low as 5 cents on March 20, 2020, during the global market selloff on that day. In a sudden jump in April 2021, just as the crypto market neared its peak, WRX shot up to highs of $5.94, but its good luck didn’t last. WRX plummeted to about $1 in July 2021, and by April 2022 had slumped to 50 cents.

How WRX works?

The WazirX token was issued as a BEP-2 token on Binance’s proprietary blockchain. It provides discounts on trading and margin fees and is distributed to traders on WazirX. The exchange calls the process of earning WRX through trading the coin “WRX Mining”, although it does not secure the network. Rather, it generates revenue for WazirX and keeps users coming to the exchange.

Traders earn discounts of up to 50% for paying fees in WRX. Of course, aside from the initial airdrop on Binance Launchpad, the only way traders can get their hands on WRX is to buy it or to earn it as a rebate for trading on WazirX.

WazirX burns its token – removing it from circulation by sending it to an address that it can’t control, similar to a stock buyback – each quarter. The size of the token burns changes each quarter, and the intention is to increase demand for the coin; the fewer coins in circulation, the more demand for those that remain. Other exchange tokens, such as FTX and BNB, are also subject to periodic token burns by their issuers.

Key events and governance

The exchange operates out of its headquarters in Mumbai, although in April 2021 the founders announced that they had relocated to Dubai.

While the founders did not provide a reason beyond being a “remote-first organization,” India is considering a 28% general sales tax on cryptocurrency transactions and has implemented a 30% tax on profits from crypto trades.

The founders of Polygon, another cryptocurrency project that hails from India, relocated to Dubai in 2020.

When Binance acquired WazirX in 2020, it did not disclose the size of the sale. Separately, WazirX and Binance started a “Blockchain for India” fund and filled it with $50 million.

Shetty is a strong advocate for crypto within India. In 2018, he started a pro-crypto campaign, #IndiaWantsCrypto, that fights for positive regulation in the country.