India shows cryptocurrency can’t be suppressed

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has done its best to keep cryptocurrency from taking hold in the country, despite not having investigated its merits. RBI introduced a ban that forbid banks to deal with any entities in the crypto space, resulting in several deciding to move out of the country or shut down completely. Despite the bank’s attempts, cryptocurrency in the country is still moving forward, demonstrating the power crypto has and how it cannot be eliminated.

In light of the RBI ban and crypto exchanges’ inability to function normally, a number of peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges are cropping up. According to a number of sources, P2P crypto services have grabbed hold in the country and are expanding more rapidly than anyone could have imagined. In an interview with news.bitcoin.com, the CEO of the Wazirx crypto exchange, Nischal Shetty, said, “In a bear market with no banking, Indians are warming up to P2P in amazing ways.” Wazirx, which began operating a week before the RBI ban, saw an increase in trading volumes of 35% by the end of September.

He further asserted, “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.”

According to a recent survey led by the Instashift crypto exchange, which provides support for more than 80 digital currencies, the majority of those who responded to the survey indicated that they prefer to cash out through P2P services. Instashift now has more than 900 members and says, “We are clocking approximately around [$27,194 – $67,985] per week in India & our volumes are looking promising in Canada & Nigeria as well.”

Another P2P option is Coindcx. It also supports over 80 cryptocurrencies, allowing its users to trade the coins for rupees. It operates the Dcxinsta P2P trading platform, which gives users a platform to purchase crypto “in less than 60 seconds.” Last week, the company launched a new rupee open order book on the exchange, allowing users to “place limit orders for trading in INR and see a complete order book using their existing INR wallets.”

Just a few days ago, India saw its first cryptocurrency ATM. It is owned by the Unocoin crypto exchange and is available only for its customers, but the company indicates that it plans on installing as many as 30 more machines across the country.

Regardless of what the naysayers would have everyone believe, cryptocurrency is here and it is here to stay. Instead of working against its expansion, they should use that energy to help the ecosystem grow and mature in a way that can be beneficial to everyone.