Koinex starts trading in REQ tokens to expand cryptocurrency portfolio

Mumbai-based cryptocurrency exchange Koinex has listed global crypto-asset Request Network (REQ) on its platform, becoming the first exchange in India to allow trading in the digital currency.

Koinex, operated by Discidium Internet Labs Pvt. Ltd, said in a press release on Friday that REQ tokens recorded trading volume of 1.5 million within 15 minutes of the launch on its platform in India for the first time on Thursday.

The trading volume jumped to 4.5 million in the first hour, it said and claimed that this pushed the global price of REQ higher.

Koinex co-founders Rahul Raj and Aditya Naik said the response to REQ validates their approach used to identify the right token to be listed on the platform.

REQ is based on the Ethereum platform, another crypto-asset. It aims to be a decentralised network that allows anyone to request a payment, for which the recipient can pay directly in a secure way.

Proponents of REQ claim that the cryptocurrency eliminates the need for a payment gateway for financial transactions, thus saving cost and time. They also claim that all REQ transactions are saved on an irreversible, authentic ledger and that this is beneficial for accounting and auditing processes.

Koinex was founded in August 2017 by IIT graduates Rakesh Yadav and Rahul Raj and BITS Pilani graduate Aditya Naik. The platform claims to be India’s first trading bourse that supports real-time trading in multiple cryptocurrencies or tokens, such as bitcoins, ethereum and litecoin, on a single platform. The exchange also recently introduced another crypto-asset, OmiseGO (OMG), on its platform. OmiseGO is also based on the Ethereum platform.

In December last year, Koinex raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a pre-Series A funding round led by existing investor Beenext and cryptocurrency focussed-fund Pantera Capital.