Shardeum, the India-first Layer 1 blockchain project announced the launch of its EVM-compatible testnet as part of its mission to build the Dapp ecosystem in India. The network integrates widely used Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) infrastructure, giving developers immediate compatibility, while Shardeum continues building its proprietary autoscaling EVM for long-term global adoption.
The launch underscores Shardeum’s vision of creating a decentralized network that is affordable, accessible, and designed for the scale of India’s digital economy. Today, India counts more than 50 million crypto exchange users, yet only a fraction actively transact on-chain. With crypto adoption worldwide crossing 500 million, Shardeum believes India represents the single largest untapped on-chain opportunity.
Founded by Nischal Shetty, who has built and scaled WazirX into India's largest crypto exchange builds on his experience of scaling platforms that introduced millions of Indians to digital assets. Having witnessed first-hand both the opportunities and challenges of Web3 adoption in India, Shetty’s focus now is on creating infrastructure that can serve users at massive scale.
Nischal Shetty CoFounder, Shardeum “Shardeum is being built with a simple but ambitious goal: to take decentralization to the masses, and build the Dapp ecosystem in India. We want to ensure every Indian can participate in the open and decentralized financial network that is growing across the world and Indian devs can create successful Dapps for this ecosystem.The EVM launch is the first step to make that possible.”
In parallel with the testnet, Shardeum is preparing a redenomination of its native SHM token, changing supply from 250 million to 60 billion. Every holder will see balances multiplied 240x without dilution. The change is aimed at making SHM more divisible and user-friendly.
Shardeum aims to help Indian developers to create successful Dapps. India should have its own Dapps ecosystem with products tailored for Indian users. We're inviting budding developers and entrepreneurs across the country to join us in building the Dapp ecosystem in India.