Bengaluru-based cryptocurrency startup Flint Labs has made the decision to discontinue its Flint Money app due to various regulatory challenges and unfavorable market conditions. In a blog post, Flint Labs cited a combination of regulatory hurdles, negative market sentiment, and other challenges that significantly limited its growth potential. The decision to sunset the Flint Money app was made in November 2022.
Flint Labs highlighted the negative regulatory climate in India as a major factor that raised the entry barrier for retail users, which was the target audience of Flint Money. Additionally, high tax rates in India made the post-tax returns of the app uncompetitive, further impacting its viability in the market.
Flint Money was initially launched in January 2022. However, the perception of yield products was adversely affected by crypto crashes involving Terra, Blockfi, Celsius, 3AC, and Vauld. Following the FTX crash, Flint Money experienced a high withdrawal velocity as users sought to move away from centralized products.
The startup also faced limitations in marketing channels, particularly on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, where it was unable to run advertisements. These limitations hindered the growth potential of the app.
Despite discontinuing Flint Money, Flint Labs shifted its focus to GasPay, which was launched in March 2023. GasPay is a Web3 solution that enables users to pay gas fees in any token, addressing one of the barriers to mass adoption in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.
Gas fees are transaction fees on the Ethereum blockchain network, typically paid in Ethereum’s native currency, ether (ETH). GasPay’s innovative solution allows users to pay gas fees in any token, aiming to make blockchains “gasless.”
According to Flint Labs, GasPay has gained over 5,000 users as of April 2023, collectively moving close to $1 million in volume.
Flint Labs was founded in 2021 by Anshu Agrawal and Akshit Bordia, former product managers at CRED. In January 2022, the startup raised $5.1 million in a seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital India, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Hashed, IOSG, Better Capital, and other notable investors.
While the Indian government introduced taxes on crypto income and transactions, there is still a lack of clear regulation for the cryptocurrency industry. The government has expressed the intention to finalize its crypto policy after international collaboration and risk evaluation, with efforts to reach a consensus on regulating cryptocurrencies during India’s G20 presidency.
