As cyber threats continue to grow in scale and sophistication, organisations across the globe are under increasing pressure to stay ahead of emerging risks. This challenge is particularly pressing in the Virtual Digital Asset (VDA) ecosystem, where exchanges and wallet providers bear the critical responsibility of protecting users’ financial assets. Acknowledging the need for stronger collective defences in this high-risk domain, India’s leading VDA and Web3 industry body, the Bharat Web3 Association (BWA) organised the first-of-its-kind Cybersecurity Workshop recently. CoinSwitch, one of BWA’s Founding members, was proud to host this workshop. Held at the CoinSwitch office in Bangalore, the workshop brought together key stakeholders from the Virtual Digital Asset Service Providers (VDASPs) and wallet provider community to initiate a much-needed dialogue on securing the Web3 ecosystem in India.
The cybersecurity workshop was dedicated solely to the unique challenges faced by VDASPs and wallet providers. It provided a formal platform for industry stakeholders to engage in open dialogue, exchange best practices, and explore collaborative solutions to enhance cybersecurity standards across the ecosystem.
The significance of the event was underlined by Shri Smarak Swain, Director, FATF Cell, Department of Revenue, who delivered the Inaugural Address. He remarked:
“In the absence of formal regulation, BWA has taken the lead in developing voluntary standards and guidelines across key areas, including cybersecurity, fair trading, and consumer protection. Initiatives like today’s workshop are commendable steps in building a responsible, compliant, and user-focused environment.”
Shri Smarak Swain (on screen) with Dilip Chenoy (Chairman, BWA)
delivering the inaugural address at the BWA Cybersecurity Workshop.
The workshop was thoughtfully structured to bridge the security protocol gaps between wallet providers and exchanges, two critical nodes in the VDA cybersecurity landscape. Govind Soni, Co-Founder & CTO of CoinSwitch, reflected on the broader responsibility of the industry, stating that while innovations like Bitcoin and blockchain represent some of the most secure and tamper-proof technologies ever developed, the challenge lies in how the surrounding ecosystem interacts with these secure layers. He emphasised that custodians, exchanges, and wallets serve as the frontline of this interaction, and their role in building secure infrastructure is paramount. Given the high stakes, he urged industry participants to come together to establish strong security foundations and shared standards, ensuring the resilience and trustworthiness of the entire ecosystem.
Shri Rakesh Maheshwari, former Senior Director & Group Coordinator for Cyber Laws and Data Governance at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), delivered a special address highlighting that in the rapidly evolving VDA ecosystem, trust and credibility rest on a foundation of strong security, transparency, and responsible data governance. Given the current absence of regulatory clarity, he emphasised the importance of industry-led self-regulation to build a resilient and trustworthy ecosystem.
Dilip Chenoy, Chairperson of the Bharat Web3 Association, emphasised that the workshop was designed to enhance cybersecurity awareness, identify critical infrastructure-level vulnerabilities, and explore best practices for safe custody.. The workshop agenda reflected this vision, covering several key dimensions of cybersecurity within the Virtual Digital Asset (VDA) sector.
The sessions opened with a keynote on The State of Cybersecurity in the VDA Ecosystem by Sridhar Govardhan (CISO, CoinDCX), setting the stage for the discussions that followed. A panel on Security Challenges in VDA Wallets vs Exchanges brought together key industry leaders, including Govind Soni (Co-Founder & CTO of CoinSwitch), Muralidharan Sundaramurthy (Head of Technology Risk and Security Compliance, APAC, Coinbase), Barath Jawahar (Director of Engineering, BitGo), and Alankar Saxena (Founder, CPO & CTO, Mudrex), to explore infrastructure-level vulnerabilities and solutions. This was followed by focused presentations on specific security concerns by Bala Chandra Pulavarthi (Head of Blockchain and Special Projects, ZebPay) and Daniel Keshet (Chief Alliance Officer, 63SATS). The workshop concluded with an overview of the Cryptocurrency Security Standard (CCSS) by Marc Krisjanous, Steering Committee Member, CCSS.
Together, these sessions provided a holistic understanding of the cybersecurity landscape in VDAs and highlighted the need for coordinated industry action.
As thought leaders in the Web3 space, our goal at CoinSwitch has always been to drive meaningful conversations around Web3, and in this mission, workshops such as the one above are important to create awareness, enhance confidence, and learn from each others’ experiences. Delivering the closing remarks, Ashish Singhal, Co-Founder of CoinSwitch, highlighted the critical importance of cybersecurity in the Web3 landscape. He emphasised that in an environment where assets are inherently connected to the internet and transactions are irreversible, robust security is not just a priority, it is a foundational necessity. In this context, he reaffirmed the value of such workshops in enabling proactive collaboration and in strengthening security frameworks across the sector.
CoinSwitch team alongside speakers, attendees of the BWA Cybersecurity Workshop.
