Wealth manager Rajesh Saluja, CEO and MD, ASK Wealth Advisors, feels some clients would have dabbled in cryptos on their accord. "Crypto being unregulated is more speculative. It's very tough to advise clients on it. I'm sure there must be some experts, but we haven’t been able to figure it out," says Saluja. Another leading wealth advisor, Ashish Gumashta, executive chairman, Julius Baer India, says, "Our clients are allowed to trade in cryptos overseas, but we don’t advise them in India."

Even as cryptos are in a free-fall zone, the ecosystem back home is unravelling as well with the IAMAI, early this year, dismantling the BACC even as the regulator and government authorities turned the heat on leading crypto platforms. "We thought of helping the players in creating a dialogue with the government and regulators and, in fact, had taken on the RBI as well. But we realised that these folks were more interested in hard selling the investment proposition rather than letting authorities know how they plan to build the cryptos and blockchain ecosystem," says a senior executive of the IAMAI. With the Enforcement Directorate opening investigations into the operations of 10 crypto exchanges, including the likes of WazirX, CoinDCX and CoinSwitch Kuber, the new-age investment class is losing steam. In the past eight months, India's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has blocked 3,300 cryptocurrency accounts for money laundering, drug trafficking, and other illegal activities. While Fortune India reached out directly to the founders of WazirX, CoinSwtich and CoinDCX, for comments, some chose to direct the questions to their PR team.

For now, Bitcoin remains the poster boy of cryptos, accounting for a chunk of the overall market cap and remains the only currency that saw substantial institutional flows year to date at $332 million (See: The Last Crypto Standing?). "Bitcoin will likely consolidate below the $20,000 level for the foreseeable future, but a downside momentum could see an easy run towards the $13,900 level. If that breaks, it could get ugly fast. Until a better regulatory framework is put in place, cryptos will be shunned upon by most of Wall Street," says Moya. Not surprising that inflows into "Short Bitcoin" are quite substantial at $115 million during the year. True to its nature of being encrypted, the ownership of cryptos is not clear. For instance, while the market cap of Bitcoin stands at $326 billion with over 19 million units in circulation, institutional AUM just stands at around $14 billion, which means the remainder is held by a diverse set of investors, which might include institutional investors who are not willing to reveal their exposure, or even unlawful elements. Since cryptos are held in alphanumeric digital wallets across a decentralised blockchain network, it is nearly impossible for agencies and regulators to establish the identity of the owners as these wallets can disappear without a trace a.k.a cold storage, wherein digital wallets are stored on a platform not connected to the Internet.

Even as the law is playing catch-up, the coming year could also see the tide turning for the worst as the Fed's unrelenting rate hike spree is weakening the case for diversification, especially cryptos. "Interest in Bitcoin will wane in 2023 as cryptos are likely to trade in a tight range as investors lose interest," feels Moya.

For those looking for a "juicy" entry level, it's better to heed the advice of the Sage of Omaha who said thus: "Whether it goes up or down in the next year, or five or 10 years, I don't know. But the one thing I'm pretty sure of is that it doesn't produce anything. It's got a magic to it and people have attached magic to lots of things."

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