We fought a central bank.
And won.

When founders ask what I mean by conviction, this is the story I tell. Not because it was clever. Because there was no plan B.

I co-founded Unocoin, India's first bitcoin exchange. We built it the slow way: compliance first, banking relationships first, education first. By 2018 millions of Indians were buying their first bitcoin through platforms like ours, and Unocoin would grow to more than 2.5 million users, backed by Digital Currency Group, Draper Associates, Boost VC, and Blume Ventures, with a Series A led by Tim Draper.

Then the Reserve Bank of India decided the industry should not exist.

The ban

In April 2018 the RBI issued a circular directing every regulated bank in India to stop serving businesses dealing in virtual currencies. No hearings, no findings of harm. Banks were given three months to cut us off, and they did. Imagine running an exchange where customers legally own their assets and there is no legal way to move a rupee in or out.

Most companies in that position die quietly. Some relocated abroad. We stayed and fought.

The fight

Through the Internet and Mobile Association of India, the industry challenged the circular before the Supreme Court of India. The argument was simple and very hard to win: a central bank cannot destroy a lawful industry by proxy, choking its banking access without evidence of actual harm. We kept the company alive through the entire fight, paying salaries through a banking blackout while the case crawled through the docket.

The win

On March 4, 2020, the Supreme Court of India struck down the RBI circular. The court held that the blanket banking ban was disproportionate: the RBI had produced no evidence of damage to its regulated entities. It remains one of the most consequential legal victories in bitcoin's history, and it reopened the door for hundreds of millions of Indians to access bitcoin legally.

Why this matters to you

If you are a founder, your version of the RBI is coming: the platform shift, the regulator letter, the bank that drops you, the market that turns. The question is not whether you will face an existential moment. It is who you want in the room when you do.

I back daring founders because I know exactly what daring costs. And I know it can be paid.