It’s been a season of legal ambiguity for the Indian cryptocurrency community, but the road ahead is looking less hazy as the latest development from the Indian Crypto trading scenes implies that the proposed Crypto-ban has done little to dissuade trading and investment interest in independent digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Hence, a building possibility that the ban is likely to fail.
Recently, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in India recorded the highest trading volume the country had ever seen; a whopping $270 million in just 24hours.
“WazirX crossed $270M in 24 hour trading volume.
That’s the highest trading volume by any crypto exchange in India, ever.” The CEO, Nischal Shetty shared on Twitter.
This is coming not long after the Indian government updated its cryptocurrency rules, to include mandatory disclosure of cryptocurrency holdings from every exchange operating in the country.
As part of their financial statement, the exchanges involved in trading and other forms of crypto-activities must reveal their entire holdings to the government.
For investors, this validates their expectations that the ban may not pull through, or be as extreme as insider sources had previously said it would be.
The CEO of Bitex, another leading crypto-exchange in India noted that the update is a step to regulation, hinting that the government is probably “not shutting all options,” like the country’s minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman, explained in a recent interview.
“This is a definite endorsement, and it is good to see that India is not falling behind the global cryptocurrency race. Bringing regulation that provides safety to investors, factors taxation and fosters cryptocurrency as an alternate investment class will be the right step ahead.”
Coupled with the fact that budding interest rates from traders, millennials in India, who make up a large part of the Indian population aren’t fazed by the government’s threat to outlaw and criminalize the use of Bitcoin. While gold is an attractive investment to the older generation who can fall back on the asset at any time, millennials are sticking with Bitcoin.
Alpen Sheth, member of the Digital Currency Governance Consortium at the World Economic Forum amplified this in his recent statement, saying;
“Millennials, people past 25 to 26 years old, think of bitcoin as a long term investment. Gen Z people are more about spending. They say: We want to spend sats, we want to get rid of bank cards.”
Furthermore, Coinbase revealing plans of expanding its cryptocurrency business to India remotely, and building a physical office in the future has amplified speculations that the ban may face a lot of pushback.
It is left to be seen, what the future of crypto trading in India will turn out to become. However, industry players like Jeremy Britton, the CFO of BostonCoin maintains that a ban will not stop investors and traders from using crypto. If anything, the ban will force residents to use the asset illegally.
