Indians Pump Billions of Dollars Into Bitcoin; Is It Becoming a New Gold?

Indian investors have piled $38.8 billion into cryptocurrencies in the last year, unfazed by promises from authorities to reintroduce a crypto crackdown. Bitcoin supporters' tagline, "Bitcoin is akin to digital gold," is attracting converts among the world's largest gold holders.

According to Chainalysis, crypto investments in India increased from roughly $200 million to nearly $40 billion in the last year, with households owning more than 25,000 tonnes of gold. Despite the central bank's open antagonism toward the asset class and a potential trading prohibition, this is the case.

Bitcoin is a decentralised cryptocurrency that was first defined by a person or group of persons using the identity Satoshi Nakamoto in a whitepaper published in 2008. It was released in January 2009, only a few months later.

Over the last year, the sum invested in cryptocurrency in India has risen from $200 million to $40 billion, according to Chainalysis, which believes that 15 million Indians are exposed to cryptocurrency.
The country's central bank has expressed "serious worries" about the asset class, and the Indian government advocated a ban on trade in digital currency six months ago - though it has remained silent since then.

The data shows the positive impact of the Indian Supreme Court's decision in March 2020 to remove the Reserve Bank of India's ban on financial institutions offering banking services to companies that deal in digital assets.

Authorities have shown no proof of cryptocurrency acceptance. Digital asset holdings in India constitute a small part of the country's gold market.Still, there is evidence of growth, particularly in trading: according to CoinGecko, daily trade on the four largest crypto exchanges increased to $102 million from $10.6 million a year earlier. According to Chainalysis, the country's $40 billion market is much smaller than China's $161 billion.

The rising adoption is another indicator of Indians' readiness to accept risks in a consumer finance market plagued by regulatory failures.

With a 24-hour trading volume of $34,33,32,57,361 USD, the current Bitcoin price is $34,417.97 USD. In the previous 24 hours, Bitcoin has gained 3.21 percent.