WazirX crosses $100 Mn in revenue in FY22, profit grows 6.4X

Cryptocurrency exchange WazirX has been facing a barrage of regulatory heat: its premises and directors were raided several times in the past year. The company’s bank accounts were also frozen by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

While 2022 turned out to be the worst period for global crypto ecosystem and WazirX’s trading volume nosedived 76% in the 12 months period ending December, the company has managed over 7X growth in its scale in the fiscal year ending March 2022, thanks to a small base, and the boom during most of 2021 at least.

WazirX’s scale ballooned 7.3X to $108.4 million (Rs 823 crore) in FY22 from $14.8 million (Rs 112.5 crore) in FY21, according to its financial statement filed by the group company in Singapore.

WazirX, which claims to have over 15 million users, allows users to buy, sell, and trade various crypto assets like Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and more.

Commission from trading was the largest source of revenue for WazirX which accounted for 94% of the collections. This collection surged 7.15X to $101.9 million (Rs 774.4 crore) in FY22 from $14.25 million (Rs 108.3 crore) in FY21.

WazirX’s ancillary activities such as software development services also contributed $7 million (Rs 53.2 crore) to its coffers in FY22. These figures stood at $0.55 million (Rs 4.18 crore) in FY21.

Marketing and promotion was the segment where the company spent most of its money and this is evident from its aggressive advertising campaigns over television, digital and social media. This cost formed 78.5% of the cost which surged around 16X to $79.6 million (Rs 605 crore) in FY22 from $5 million (Rs 38 crore) in FY21.

To keep up with growth, the company also hired aggressively during FY22. Expenditure on salaries and other employee benefits shot up 2.3X to $5.25 million (Rs 40 crore) whereas the payment gateway charges also increased 11.25X to $2.3 million in FY22.

WazirX spent $3.8 million on server charges which pushed its overall cost by 637% to $101.4 million (Rs 770.6 crore) in FY22.

With over 7X growth in its scale, its profit ballooned 6.36X to $7 million (Rs 53.2 crore) in FY22 from $1.1 million (Rs 8.36 crore) in FY21. WazirX’s ROCE and EBITDA margin remained positive and stood at 87.06% and 6.46% respectively in FY22.

Winter of course came early to the crypto world in FY23, and expect the next set of numbers from the firm to be much smaller, both on the revenues and expenses front. In fact, there is a good chance that those numbers could fall below or even more than the growth seen in FY22, to levels well below those in FY20. With trading volume during Jan and Dec 2022 falling as much as 97% according to some sources, short of a long awaited recovery, WazirX could be staring at more prosaic issues of survival.

The ongoing separation of Blockchain technology from Crypto is also expected to cast a harsher light on Crypto exchanges and their practices. No one really is in a position to talk about governance standards, or protection for investors, something everyone was blithely promising till early 2022. As one of the biggest success stories in the sector from India, WazirX risks a speedy, unlamented decline unless it can pull out some major credibility building move(s) soon.