Crypto is where mutual funds were in 1995, veteran investor says

Vikaas M. Sachdeva has spent 30 years persuading skeptical investors to try asset classes they didn’t understand. First it was mutual funds in the mid-1990s, when awareness in India was so low that a receptionist once confused his asset management company with an annual maintenance contract provider. Now, as Chief Executive Officer of BitDelta India, a crypto exchange, he is making the same pitch for digital assets.

In an interview with ET Wealth, Sachdeva laid out a blunt comparison: crypto today sits at the same crossroads mutual funds occupied in 1995. The compliance guardrails exist, he said, but the education and market structure built on top of them are still catching up. For anyone watching the crypto space from the outside, whether you live on Bustleton Avenue or in a Tier II Indian city, the argument is worth understanding. The same Wall Street giants that manage retirement accounts across Northeast Philadelphia are now building products to give ordinary investors access to Bitcoin and other digital coins.

From IPOs to SIPs to crypto: one career, three trust gaps

Sachdeva started in merchant banking in the mid-1990s, handling a flood of Initial Public Offers. He went on to hold senior business development roles at global asset managers, led a domestic asset management company, ran a Portfolio Management Service firm, and headed a large Alternative Investment Fund. Each move opened a new investor universe, from small monthly plans worth a few hundred rupees to multimillion-dollar ticket sizes.