Dec 23, 2021 12:25 UTC
| Updated:
Dec 23, 2021 at 12:26 UTC
The crypto regulations have been discussed in India for a long time now. While the country still struggles to adopt a finalized cryptocurrency trading bill, the market is becoming more and more popular among the local crypto enthusiasts of the country. This is especially true for the younger, tech-savvy generation of the country.
Recently, one of the largest crypto exchanges in India, WazirX announced that it managed to have an amazing year in terms of its user base. According to the exchange, it has witnessed activity like never before.
This included traders from smaller cities from India, which have managed to become part of the crypto trading industry even with so many hardships. WazirX is a very famous crypto exchange in India and it is based in Mumbai. This is actually an affiliate of one of the largest crypto exchanges around the world, Binance.
According to the official report of WazirX, the exchange managed to register a very high annual trading volume, which was over $43 billion. This is a huge increase when compared to data from 2020, and is an increase of over 1,700 percent.
Demand in Rural Areas Increase
The company noted that one of the most significant developments for the crypto exchange this year was how popular it has become among retail traders from smaller cities and towns of the country. As the statement of the company indicates, it has witnessed a massive increase of over 700 percent in signups from smaller cities of the country, among which are Guwahati, Karnal, and many others.
According to the representatives of the company, this shows exactly how popular the crypto industry is becoming in India, and how useful this market can be for those living in semi-urban and rural areas of India. Another very successful aspect of the exchange was the fact that it has offered numerous cryptocurrencies and crypto pairs for its clients to trade.
That said, investing in Bitcoin still remained the most popular on the crypto exchange, as it had an amazing performance throughout 2021. Bitcoin was followed by a tether in terms of popularity. Other very popular cryptocurrencies on WazirX were those like DOGE, SHIB, and many others.
The report published by the company also indicates that retail investors of India were exceptionally interested in cheap and more volatile cryptocurrencies, specifically those like DOGE and SHIB. The reasons behind this are not too hard to understand.
Such cheap, yet volatile cryptocurrencies offer crypto traders the opportunity to make profits without spending much time in the market. However, at the same time, they also tend to be very risky. The same trend can be seen in other parts of the world.
Reasons Behind Crypto Popularity
The report also noted that the volatile meme tokens were mostly traded by men, on the other hand, according to the report, women mostly opted out for bitcoin. The company also noted that over 2021, the number of female investors has increased dramatically, as much as 1,009%. As for the number of male investors, it has increased by 829 percent.
According to WazirX, most of the people using the services of the crypto exchange were under 51. The number of traders above 51 is just 11 percent. The company also claimed that over 66 percent of its users are below 35 years old. There are many reasons behind such increased popularity of digital assets around the world.
One of the main reasons might be the Covid-19 pandemic, which has forced many people to find an additional source of income. The report also claimed that as more people started talking about cryptocurrencies, it has managed to emerge as an alternative asset class, with a lot to offer to individual investors.
The crypto industry has managed to grow dramatically in India despite the lack of regulatory clarity in the country. The government of the country has been working on the crypto bill for a long time now, however, there still seem to be numerous issues associated with it.
As crypto popularity continues to boom in India, the government, as well as the central bank of the country remains to be negative towards the idea of further development of digital assets. Representatives of WazirX noted that they feel confident that the government will regulate, rather than ban cryptocurrencies.
In fact, the representatives of the crypto exchange believe that the regulations adopted by the government of the country will support the development of the crypto industry, rather than limit it. They have noted that it is very important for the regulations to be supportive, to ensure India becomes one of the leading countries around the world in terms of crypto adoption and development.
However, it is still very unclear how the Indian government will decide to regulate the cryptocurrency industry. The representatives of the government have noted that the bill that should have been voted on during the Winter Session of the Parliament was not ready for the hearing.
According to them, the hearing will most likely take place after some changes are made in the bill and it will be presented to the parliament in February.
