Are crypto investment apps like Flint and Pillow legal?
The startups promise to put your rupees into high-yielding crypto investments in a few easy steps. The risks, though, aren’t as clear.
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Editor's note: Centred against a black backdrop, Anushka Rathod smiles gently as she unfolds the complexities of a cryptocurrency investment scheme. With 387,000 followers on Instagram, Rathod is well known as a personal finance influencer on Indian social media. “I hope you now understand what yield farming is and some of the easier strategies. This is exactly what we do at Pillow but only a little more complex,” she says while concluding the explainer in her usual jovial tone. A subtle endorsement of a product that leaves behind more questions than answers. Pillow, the app she’s referring to, and Flint are part of a new wave of decentralized finance, or DeFi, investing startups. They attract users with the promise of taking their regular money, whether Indian rupees or US dollars, and putting those deposits in crypto assets that will generate annual returns of 13% on Flint and up to 18% on Pillow. The crypto-savvy can directly earn these kinds of returns, and even more, by putting their cryptocurrency tokens into liquidity pools through a process called yield staking. Crypto traders who need …
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