Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio expected to launch "JioCoin" reward token built using the Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain

Barely a week since US President Donald J Trump launched his crypto token $TRUMP and it is soaring in value, one of India's wealthiest industrialists—Mukesh Ambani, MD and Chairman of Reliance Industries—was expected to be in the right position to launch “JioCoin”.

Reliance Jio’s ‘JioCoin’ to reward users for browsing on JioBrowser

NEW DELHI: A week after US President Donald J Trump launched his crypto token $TRUMP, which has been soaring in value, one of India’s wealthiest industrialists—Mukesh Ambani, MD and Chairman of Reliance Industries—was expected to be in the right position to launch “JioCoin”.

The Indian conglomerate’s web3 partner Polygon announced the launch of the token on social media.

However, so far, there has not been any official statement surrounding “JioCoin” or any crypto offering directly from Reliance Jio.

Initial reports suggest that JioCoin is a reward token built using the Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain. JioCoin, as reports suggest, is not a cryptocurrency in the traditional sense. Instead, JioCoin resembles reward tokens/coins that are earned by users of Jio platforms.

The news of JioCoin had been making waves on social media ever since Reliance-owned Jio Platforms Ltd announced a web3 collaboration agreement with blockchain services provider Polygon Labs last week. Polygon, in its announcement, introduced the “use case” where customers can earn JioCoins by browsing through Reliance Jio’s native “JioBrowser”, terming it as “incentivizing users for surfing the internet”.

This potential move also marks the conglomerate’s entry into the decentralised digital token/currency space, one that has been marred with regulatory hurdles and controversy in India.

Highlighting the Indian users’ preference for offshore crypto platforms, a study by Delhi-based technology policy think tank, Esya Centre, last month stated that Indians use more offshore platforms to deal with cryptos, especially to avoid the comparably high taxes levied on blockchain tokens when compared to other securities. From January to October 2024, Indian activity on offshore platforms shot up 77 per cent as local users circumvented restrictions with private networks (VPNs), mirror platforms or servers, with some even migrating completely to non-compliant exchanges.

The study also argued that 82 per cent of Indian users would return to trading through domestic or India-compliant platforms if the TDS (tax deducted at source) is cut to 0.01 per cent—this is the current tax levied on securities and commodities.

In contrast, not only does the centre levy 1 per cent TDS on the transfer of crypto assets from July 2022 if the transactions exceed Rs 50,000 (or even Rs 10,000 in some cases) under Section 194S, it also slaps a 30 per cent (plus 4 per cent cess) tax on gains made from trading cryptocurrencies under Section 115BBH of the Income Tax Act.

Earlier last week, in a joint announcement, Jio Platforms and Polygon Protocols-owned Polygon Labs announced a strategic partnership. This deal included adding Web3 capabilities to certain existing applications and services owned and operated by Jio Platforms. Jio Platforms CEO Kiran Thomas then commented on how excited they were to “explore the boundless possibilities of Web3 and bring unparalleled digital experiences” to users.

Sandeep Nailwal, founder of Polygon, termed the move “a significant step forward for web3 adoption in India”.

Polygon Labs is known for its web3 technology and blockchain expertise in the country.

Reliance’s telecom arm, Jio, on Wednesday night, announced its November 2024 subscriber data. In the month, it added 12.1 lakh wireless subscribers to hit a total of 46.12 crore mobile users.

Polygon’s offering is looking at such a potential user base, which is much higher than Jio’s telecom rivals.

According to the TRAI, during the period, Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL shed subscribers.

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Jio’s November data marked the end of its straight customer shedding for four months before this. In contrast, major rival Bharti Airtel lost at least 11.4 lakh wireless subscribers in November. At month-end, Airtel’s total mobile users reduced to 38.4 crore.

Vodafone Idea lost 15 lakh users to reach 20.8 crore customers.

BSNL, which saw gains before the month of November, shed only 3.5 lakh subscribers. The state-controlled carrier had a total of 9.20 crore users by month-end.

Jio’s collaboration with Polygon marks the telecom sector’s first major move in protecting tech from blockchain industry players. It remains to be seen what Reliance would do and how a token from Jio—if any—would work in the Indian crypto space.