By Prasid Banerjee | Mint
NEW DELHI: Retail investors aged between 25 and 40 are spending millions on trading in cryptocurrency in India every day, according to two of the top exchanges in the country. According to the country’s largest crypto exchange, WazirX, the company saw 125% increase in user signups in the past six months, while its rival CoinDCX said it saw 85% growth in traders in the last quarter.
According to Sumit Gupta, co-founder and CEO, CoinDCX, the platform sees $20-25 million worth of trading every day, about 75% of which comes from Indian investors. On the other hand, WazirX sees $19-26 million daily trading volumes, with 89% of the transactions coming from India. 70% of WazirX’s users are under 30 years of age, while most of CoinDCX’s users fall in the 25-40 year bracket.
Spending can go from anywhere in the ₹100-200 bracket to thousands and more. One can buy a crypto asset like Bitcoin on WazirX for as little as Rs148 right now.
Experts expect the number of retail investors to grow even faster now that Bitcoin, by far the best known digital currency, has hit a lifetime high. According to industry veteran Vincent Poon, expectations are that the price of Bitcoin could rise to as high as $100,000 this time. The world’s largest digital asset rose to $19,577.47 on 30 November, hitting an all-time high. Its previous high was at $19,511, which it hit in December 2017, losing 70% of its value in the next two years. Poon said a “fear of missing the 100,000 price point” will lead a lot of people to invest in Bitcoin now.
According to Nischal Shetty, Founder & CEO, WazirX, the Bitcoin boom has created a “positive sentiment”, which has pushed more retail investors to jump into crypto trading in India. The exchange saw a 52% increase in the number of trade orders between 29 and 30 November, as Bitcoin was surging. Overall crypto trading volumes grew by 27% too, during the same period.
“It seems like the institutions are powering this massive Bitcoin rally. Large, publicly listed companies like Microstrategy and Square are investing portions of their treasury into BTC,” said Raghu Mohan, CEO and co-founder of Lumos Labs, an innovation management company. He added that such companies allowing merchants to use cryptocurrencies on their platforms have brought a “sense of credibility” to Bitcoin, as has the fact that billion dollar hedge funds and asset managers around the world are “looking for exposure into Bitcoin” as well.
“It now has a 10 year track record and has created more returns than any other investment in the same time period,” he added. While regulatory uncertainty in India may have kept many companies away from crypto trading, Mohan said there’s growing appetite from high net worth individuals towards digital assets.
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