A BBA student from Shimla,Himachal Pradesh, Kashif’s first introduction to crypto was on a train journey and his impulse reaction was that it’s a hoax! Well, this was 2016 and it was hard for many to tell the difference back then. Today, crypto is being readily adopted by the world owing to its technological edge and wide-ranging advantages. Meet Kashif Raza, Co-Founder of Crypto Kanoon, a platform for crypto regulatory news & analysis and startup advisory. 

“I am from a business family in Himachal Pradesh. I was an average student in school who prioritised participating in various extracurricular activities and was fascinated with economics as a subject. All this may seem common but every incident in my life contributed to who I am and have become today.  I have worked in big MNCs such as PepsiCo, where I had to set up a distribution network. I learned about their dream to remain a responsible consumer-centric brand in spite of them being successful. So, there was a massive learning curve around how to build your brand, how to strengthen your distribution network, how to reach out to your customers even if he’s sitting in a rural village. Post that, I got an opportunity to work in a media company, Sony Entertainment Television. I was looking after the marketing and distribution division and post that I joined Disney UTV, which made me travel to  every nook and corner of North India.”

While working for different companies and managing a family, Kashif often felt that he had the zeal to create more value for himself beyond the nine to six job regime. While the job catered to his professional goals and catered to his financial needs, his life experiences started pushing him to find an alternate way of applying the principles of compound learning to create more value with his work.

So, Kashif began his research to find his answers and he started experimenting a lot to kickstart his alternate earning streams. “During the journey, I made several mistakes and incurred huge losses.” But with every failure, he noted his learnings and tried to implement them in his plans to improve his strategy. “I started making a conscious effort of journaling every learning I had during the course of my personal and professional journey and adapted as needed.”

In Nov 2016, Kashif was introduced to a crypto exchange trading in Bitcoins by his childhood friend,while they were on a train journey together. The two had different views about Bitcoin being a good investment option and Kashif was convinced that his friend had fallen prey to yet another Ponzi scheme. Feeling defeated, the friend kept nagging him on the profits he is making with crypto.And what happens when your childhood friend keeps pushing you.. You reluctantly give in and just do what they are asking you to do anyway to keep them happy! I immediately invested INR 5000 rupees in Bitcoin and forgot about it.”

After three days, Kashif received an alert on his phone that the money from INR 5000 was now grown to INR 7500. “I did not make any further transactions but kept noticing the alerts and slowly got hooked to it and I was intrigued to know more about this space.I started reading about crypto in my spare time and started understanding the basics of it. It took me 21 days to complete my research and based on the personal risks that I could afford, I started increasing my investments in crypto and eventually took a huge personal loan at a high rate of interest  to invest in Bitcoin.” 

Before he could enjoy the fruits of his crypto investments he fell prey to a promise which was made by a Ponzi Scheme promoted by known celebrities in the industry in India.

This incident turned his life around as he lost all his money and found himself in a tough spot to recover the money. With a depressive state of mind and bills to pay he was only left with a job that helped him pay his EMIs and cover for his personal expenses. Kashif  realized the mistakes he made after transferring his crypto assets to a Ponzi establishment and gap areas that exist in this growing crypto ecosystem. He lost his fortune and pledged to never invest more money on crypto and exit this space.

Somehow,he started nurturing his ideas to secure other users who were equally lost in the crypto space as he traced back his steps on all the learnings he had with cryptos. He happened to discuss his insights with a family friend, Muhammad Danish and together they came up with a solution that would help raise more awareness to stop people from making the same mistakes. They realized that with awareness cryptos could be a great investment opportunity for every individual to fulfill their right to economic equality and freedom. It was then that they co-founded Crypto Kanoon.

Today,Kashif still believes that crypto has become an indispensable part of his life and the industry has huge potential to revive our economy. He has spoken at various crypto forums and authored several articles focusing on crypto regulations. During his journey at Crypto Kanoon the most memorable milestone that he experienced was when his team got to capture the live feed of The RBI vs Crypto Case being discussed from the courtroom. 

“My ultimate mission is to help minimum 1lakh Indians to start their new innings of life which they can call as crypto innings.”

Like him, crypto has become an indispensable part of the everyday lives of several individuals. What is  your crypto success story? Tag us on Twitter and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Be sure to include the hashtag #HumansOfCrypto. 

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency is not a legal tender and is currently unregulated. Kindly ensure that you undertake sufficient risk assessment when trading cryptocurrencies as they are often subject to high price volatility. The information provided in this section doesn't represent any investment advice or WazirX's official position. WazirX reserves the right in its sole discretion to amend or change this blog post at any time and for any reasons without prior notice.