Cryptocurrencies have seen an exponential increase in interest even since the Reserve Bank of India ( India’s central bank and regulatory body ) ban was lifted in March 2020, according to BrokerChooser ( broker discovery and comparison platform), the country has the highest number of crypto owners in the world at 100 million, crypto users.
As per the BrokerChoose’s annual crypto proliferation index.
the number of crypto owners as a the total population, India stood at the fifth position with 7.30%. Ukraine ranked first with 12.73% followed by Russia with 11.91%, Kenya with 8.52% and the US 8.31%.
“The digital assets have caught everyone’s attention not only because it has emerged as the best asset class of 2021 but also because other asset classes are not able to fulfill the aspiration of the smart investors who want their money to grow at a global rate,” said Shivam Thakral, CEO, BuyUcoin, indian cryptocurrency exchange.
A study by BrokerChooser saw that the US people search the most crypto-related information followed by India, the UK and Canada.
A lot of indian crypto investor are young and from small cities who are trying to get into crypto as their first investment class.
“India’s crypto market is witnessing high trade volumes not only from the metro cities but from the entire country. Trade volumes from smaller cities show a high level of penetration of digital assets in India and with post-pandemic recovery, retail and institutional investors are looking for high returns on their investments, it looks like digital assets have become their choice to beat inflation,” said Jay Hao, CEO, OKEx.com, a global crypto exchange.
The Indian government is working on a crypto bill to regulate cryptocurrencies in India, however, the contents of the bill are not known.
In February 2021, a crypto bill on banning ‘private cryptocurrencies’ was slated to be introduced in the Budget session of Parliament. However, the bill was delayed, and unclear what the legal status of cryptocurrency in India is.
“More clarity from the government around crypto is the need of the hour and the entire digital asset industry is looking forward to an inclusive and growth-oriented crypto regulation bill in India,” said Shivam Thakral.