Introduction
Did you know that the cryptocurrency market in India grew by 421% year-on-year from 2021 to 2022?
Cryptocurrency rose to fame as a financial safety net after the 2008 economic turmoil and again after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fact that cryptocurrency isn’t centrally regulated gains favor among the public for activities like investment, trading, and even gambling today.
Given its popularity, countless crypto exchanges have mushroomed online, giving you a multitude of options. The trick lies in choosing the right one for you. It is fairly simple to buy crypto in India with a debit card, provided you know where to begin.
Let’s do a quick recap of crypto and discuss how to buy crypto in India in detail.
A Quick Recap of Cryptocurrencies
As an industry, cryptocurrency is still in its nascent stages in India. People are still getting to know about what cryptocurrencies are, what they can buy with them, and how an investment in the crypto ecosystem can benefit them.
With that said, the popularity of crypto in the Indian market is high, with the market standing at 89,226 million UVs as of March ’22.
Acknowledging this popularity, the Indian Budget 2022 now recognizes crypto as a virtual digital asset and has laid down a few preliminary guidelines for the same. Income from VDAs is now set to be taxed at 30%.
This certainly gets the ball rolling on the otherwise grey nature of cryptocurrencies in India, which, prior to the budget, were neither illegal nor strictly legal earlier.
However, as of today, Indians still can’t directly purchase cryptocurrency. You will need to go through a peer-to-peer transaction or use a cryptocurrency exchange with your debit card or other payment methods.
Let’s now understand how cryptocurrencies are stored in case you wish to acquire them as assets or trade them.
How is Cryptocurrency Stored?
Storing cryptocurrency is similar to owning a wallet like PayPal or Google Pay. Cryptocurrencies have their own wallet services that you can download as an application to your mobile phone.
The transactions in cryptocurrencies can happen through your wallet. All the transactions are secure since they are cryptographically signed and encrypted.
Although the legality of cryptocurrency wallets is still in the grey zone in India, you can find many such services that provide transaction security and transparency in cryptocurrency exchanges and trading.
The most popular trading platform and crypto wallet in India today is WazirX.
How to Buy Crypto in India?
Buying cryptocurrency in India has become as easy as shopping online for daily-use products.
You need to look up a suitable cryptocurrency exchange platform and follow the steps listed below. Once this is done, you can enjoy purchasing and selling any cryptocurrency you wish.
It is to be noted that to buy crypto in India, you need to register on a cryptocurrency exchange platform like Binance. Let’s understand the process in the context of Binance.
How to Buy Crypto on Binance in India
Binance is a leading cryptocurrency exchange platform in India that houses hundreds of cryptocurrencies that can be traded on it.
For purchasing cryptocurrencies, Binance charges you a minimal fee, a bank transaction fee, and any other charges as applicable based on the coin you decide to purchase.
1. Create a free account
To begin purchasing cryptocurrencies, you need to register a free account on Binance and verify your identity. On the browser, you can register through email, and on mobile devices, you can register using a phone number.
2. Select the acquisition method
Binance offers you four ways to acquire cryptocurrency:
- By using a debit or credit card. Binance supports VISA and MasterCard
- By using bank transfers to deposit money into Binance and then using this amount to buy coins
- By using peer-to-peer trading. You can directly purchase cryptocurrency from other users registered on Binance
- Third-party payments
3. Confirm your purchase
Binance gives you a window of 1 minute to confirm your order for cryptocurrency. This is because of the volatility of the market. You can proceed with the purchase when you are sure of your order.
4. Store your coins
Binance provides you with a crypto wallet service to store your coins.
The Most Popular Coin Exchanges in India
The internet is swimming with cryptocurrency exchanges with a multitude of choices available in coins. Listed below are the top-ranking crypto exchanges in India that are the most secure and reliable in terms of transaction safety and reliability:
WazirX
Launched in 2021, WazirX has quickly risen to the top rung in India in terms of cryptocurrency trading. It has the capability to process millions of transactions at a time. You can engage in peer-to-peer transactions on this platform.
CoinSwitch
CoinSwitch isn’t natively Indian, but ever since it entered the Indian market in 2017, it has enabled millions of crypto exchanges on its platform. It offers you about 300 cryptocurrencies and 45,000 trading pairs.
CoinDCX
CoinDCX is making a name for itself by charging zero fees for fiat-to-crypto transactions. This makes it simple to use traditional currencies in the cryptoverse, making CoinDCX gain a spot in the top five.
Binance
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the world in terms of volume. You can find all the common cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether on this platform.
ZebPay
ZebPay is one of the most used cryptocurrency trading platforms in the country. It was launched in 2014 but had to relaunch in 2020 ahead of the RBI guidelines for cryptocurrency regulation in India.
The Gist
Cryptocurrencies are just starting out in India. This is a good time to explore the crypto universe, invest in your future, and build a corpus. You can dabble in the industry through crypto trading and gambling to understand its dynamics better.
With that said, exercising a little precaution on how you proceed with your crypto investments doesn’t hurt. After all, it is a volatile market, and all investments come with some attached risks, right?