Indian Cryptocurrency Exchanges See Rapid Growth in P2P Trading

Trading volumes on exchange-escrowed peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency trading platforms in India are rising rapidly amid the banking ban by the country’s central bank. “Indians are warming up to P2P in amazing ways,” the CEO of a local crypto exchange told news.Bitcoin.com. Several other exchanges competing in the same space are seeing similar responses from their users.

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P2P Trading Volumes Growing Rapidly

Indian cryptocurrency exchanges that offer P2P services are experiencing rapid growth in trading volumes despite the cryptocurrency banking ban by the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The CEO of Indian crypto exchange Wazirx, Nischal Shetty, told news.Bitcoin.com that “In a bear market with no banking, Indians are warming up to P2P in amazing ways.” Wazirx launched its exchange-escrowed P2P service on July 10, a week before the RBI ban took effect.

India’s central bank has banned financial institutions from providing services to crypto businesses. As the country’s supreme court continues to postpone hearing the petitions against the ban, a growing number of Indian exchanges have implemented their own solutions to the banking problem such as using P2P trading and launching cryptocurrency ATMs.

Shetty shared with news.Bitcoin.com:

P2P is working great for Wazirx. It’s helping us increase our daily trading volumes as well. In fact a few days ago we hit 100 BTC in daily trading volume for the first time … we’ve crossed over $5M in P2P in the 3 months since we’ve gone live.

The exchange revealed at the end of September that its trading volumes had grown 35 percent in the past few months, consistently reaching 50 BTC in daily trading volumes during the month.

Some More P2P Offerings

The exchange-escrowed P2P option has become a popular way for traders in India to cash out their coins. Recently, crypto exchange Instashift conducted a survey of its users and found that the majority of 50 respondents prefer to cash out their cryptocurrencies using P2P services. Instashift offers the trading of over 80 cryptocurrencies. With a community of over 900 members using its P2P platform, the exchange told news.Bitcoin.com, “We are clocking approximately around 2-5 million INR [$27,194 – $67,985] per week in India & our volumes are looking promising in Canada & Nigeria as well.”

Coindcx also allows its users to convert over 80 cryptocurrencies into the Indian rupee. Its P2P platform Dcxinsta allows users to buy cryptocurrencies “instantly with INR … in less than 60 seconds,” according to the exchange’s website. On Thursday, Coindcx announced that “INR open order book” is now live on the exchange so users can now “place limit orders for trading in INR and see a complete order book using their existing INR wallets.”

The CEO of Coindcx, Sumit Gupta, explained to news.Bitcoin.com that the “Minimum buy or sell amount for any user is Rs 10. (approx. 15 cents)” on his exchange, emphasizing that “every Indian can now invest in crypto.” He further revealed that on his P2P platform:

We’re getting a phenomenal response from users with average no. of orders being more than 10 per Dcxinsta user.

Disclaimer: Bitcoin.com does not endorse or support claims made by exchanges in this article. None of the information in this article is intended as investment advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products or companies. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

What do you think of the growing popularity of P2P trading in India amid the RBI ban? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Wazirx, Instashift, and Coindcx.

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