In this article, we will briefly discuss the current state of Blockchain in India and also how to buy cryptocurrency in India using Indian Rupee (INR).

The current state of Blockchain: Global vs India

We will start with a reference to an excellent research article published by PWC on the state of Blockchain, the territories which will contribute the most towards Blockchain innovation.

PWC predicts that India will contribute to about 6% to the Blockchain Industry by 2023.

Now, here are some facts:

  • As per marketsandmarkets, the Blockchain market will grow at a CAGR of 80.2%. Astounding!

  • India is the largest exporter of IT Services. Reference: Wikipedia

With such a huge IT workforce, why is India’s prediction on Blockchain (high CAGR) so low?

Just like the majority of other countries, India has the same roadblocks. Here’s another excerpt from the same PWC Report.

Let us link this to some recent news:

April 5, 2018: The Reserve Bank of India Cracked down on cryptocurrencies by asking banks to shut down accounts that deal with cryptocurrencies.

October 1, 2018: Indian Crypto Exchange Zebpay Shuts Down Exchange Due to Indian Bank Regulations

January 25, 2019: India’s Crypto Regulation Report in Finalisation Stage, Confirms RTI

In between there has been a lot of progress:

  • NITI Aayog, a policy think-tank of the Government of India, co-hosted the biggest Blockchain conference in Asia, ‘International Blockchain Congress 2018’.
  • State governments of Telangana and Goa took an active part in the same event.
  • State Governments (Pioneered by Government of Andhra Pradesh) are signing partnerships with Blockchain Companies.
  • NASSCOM, the trade association of the Indian IT-BPM industry, has published Positive reviews on Blockchain.
  • On February 20, Emurgo launched its Academy in India.

Emurgo, a Blockchain powerhouse, further mentioned:

“Within five years, the number of software developers worldwide is expected to grow rapidly with India projected to overtake the United States in terms of overall total software developers by 2023.

Thus, there is a large opportunity present in the current marketplace to offer comprehensive blockchain education to shore up the supply of blockchain developers to meet the demand for blockchain developers.”

The opportunity:

This brings a huge opportunity for the common Indian to be prepared for the future: either through learning and upskilling or making money through trading. You need knowledge and the correct ethical direction. We will discuss a few websites where you can start cryptocurrency trading, but, before that, here are some rules:

Rules:

Here are some rules before I discuss the exchanges:

  • Golden Rule: Only invest the amount which you are accepting to lose.
  • Start with a small amount of Fiat money.
  • Keep an eye on the security of your investment.
  • Understand the Market Trends using your first investment, through small focused transactions.
  • Do your own research!
  • Remember, the market is extremely volatile.

The top Indian cryptocurrency exchanges (not in any order):

Koinex

Koinex recently won the Gold Award in the Crisis Management category for “Rescuing cryptocurrency from India’s biggest financial crisis” in the prestigious Kaleido Awards 2019.

Considering the tumultuous Indian cryptocurrency market, Koinex has been steady. Launched in 2017, Koinex considers itself as India’s most advanced digital assets exchange. It boasts of 1M+ Registered User, $3B+ Trade Volume and 20M+ Executed Orders.

Here are some key points:

  • Exchange Type: Centralised
  • 24hour Volume (13.3.2019, Coingecko): $99,722
  • Total Coins: 33
  • Most active Coin: XRP
  • Buyer Fee: 0.15%
  • Seller Fee: 0.15%
  • Investors: Beenext, Pantera
  • KYC: Yes
  • Android App: Yes
  • Ios App: No
  • Web App: Yes
  • P2P Exchange: Yes (Koinex Loop)
  • Products:
    • Loop – Loop is a trustful peer-to-peer token transaction network. With the Reserve Bank of India instructing all banks to stop their relationship with cryptocurrency exchanges and traders, the P2P platforms have become very popular.

Here are some Tutorials on how Loop works

                          How to place a Sell Request on Koinex LOOP

How to place a Buy Request on Koinex LOOP

Other training materials can be found here.

    • Express – Exchange crypto-to-crypto with 0% trading fees across 200+ trading pairs.

    • Pulse – An open source browser extension for EOS by Koinex. Link here.

        • The First Block- Crypto knowledge sharing platform. Link here.

Koinex also provides a feature where a user can boost his/her INR transactions for faster processing by adding Fuel, which is a small percentage of the transaction.

WazirX

WazirX was founded a year back, in 2018. In this short period of time, it has established itself as one of the fastest growing cryptocurrency exchanges in India. WazirX has been growing at a rate of over 50% month-on-month. WazirX boasts of 75,000+ app installations till now.

Here are some key points:

  • Exchange Type: Centralised
  • 24hour Volume (13.3.2019, Coingecko): $185,254
  • Total Coins: 44
  • Most active Coin: BTC
  • Maker Fee: 0.15%
  • Taker Fee: 0.25%
  • KYC: Yes
  • Android App: Yes
  • Ios App: Yes
  • Web App: Yes
  • P2P Exchange: Yes
    • Exploring the WazirX P2P exchange:
    • As per a recent WazirX medium article
  • Over 30% of P2P transactions on WazirX get done in under 5 minutes
  • Average P2P trade completion time is 19.4 mins
  • Only 2% of WazirX P2P transactions go into dispute
  • There have been 0% fraud cases on WazirX P2P

The WazirX P2P Exchange deals with USDT ↔ INR transactions only.

Below is a guide on how a deposit in WazirX P2P works in the Web tool.

Further details can be found here.

WazirX has plans to go international in the coming days.

 

Bitbns

Bitbns is a very popular Indian cryptocurrency exchange founded in December 2017 by IIT Graduates. Considering the current crypto to fiat conversion challenges in India, Bitbns has also come up with few innovative solutions:

Let us look into a few key points first

  • Exchange Type: Centralised
  • 24hour Volume (13.3.2019, Coinmarketcap): $410,251
  • Total Coins: 67
  • Most active Coin: XRP
  • Maker Fee: 0.25%
  • Taker Fee: 0.25%
  • KYC: Yes
  • Android App: Yes
  • Ios App: Yes
  • Web App: Yes
  • P2P Exchange: Yes
  • Offerings: Bitbns offers 4 types of Money transfer options
    • P2P USDT Transfer:
    • P2P Bank Transfer:
    • P2P Vouchers:
    • Bitbns SELECT Deposit:

    • P2P USDT Transfer:

Using this option a user can:

      • Directly purchase USDT by depositing INR.
      • Directly sell USDT to withdraw INR.

The USDT rate can be found in the Orders

More details can be found here.

    • P2P Bank Transfer:

Similar to Koinex, Bitbns P2P Bank Transfer finds a match. A user can give a Tip (just like Fuel for Koinex) to give an incentive to a transaction.

 

    • P2P Vouchers:

Vouchers are another unique way where the INR Transfer happens in the form of vouchers. The Bitbns has a partnership with Bidforx. Once a match is found, a user has to log in to Bidforx and generate a voucher for the withdrawer and submit it. The detailed process is described here.

 

    • Bitbns SELECT Deposit:

Bitbns SELECT is only for SELECT users. It provides the user to deposit INR 1Lakh and more within 10 minutes. More details are provided here.

Below are the criteria which need to be met in order to become a Select member

  • You must trade 10 BTC worth of cryptocurrencies in the last 30 days

OR

  • You must deposit a minimum of INR 6 lacs to your Bitbns INR wallet in last 30 days

OR

  • You must have completed a minimum of 100 referrals

 

Conclusion:

Other Indian exchange options include Buyucoin, Coinome, Coindelta, Pocketbits etc.

For the international transactions, you can read my article How to use a Bitcoin wallet: Set-up, Buy, Trade, Store and Withdraw Bitcoin

Note that, the features mentioned in the exchanges might change with time. The readers are requested to do thorough due-diligence before starting. Please test your first transactions using small amounts only.

This article is the opinion of the author and every individual need to do their own research before investing in cryptocurrencies. Please follow the Rules and Regulations of the Government while trading in cryptocurrencies. Do not indulge in illegal activities.

We hope there will be regulations soon so that the processes get smoother!

Join us on Telegram to receive free trading signals.

For more cryptocurrency news, check out the Altcoin Buzz YouTube channel.

 

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