People changing their mindset from gold to crypto in India
The Cryptocurrency market in India has gone through a revolution in the recent years. Despite seeing the rapid ups and downs and restricted regulations, millions of people have started to invest in cryptocurrencies instead of gold. In India, approximately 15 million people have invested in cryptocurrencies.
A research study conducted by Chainalysis suggested that more than 25000 tonnes of gold are in possession of Indian households where the growth of investment in the crypto market has risen from $923 million during April 2020 to nearly $6.6 billion in May 2021. In this period, the proliferation of the total number of users in India has resulted in a 612% rise. Approximately 6 million new users have joined the largest Indian crypto platform, CoinSwitch Kuber, since it began its journey in June 2020.
Shift in the people’s mentality towards crypto
Although the future of cryptocurrency is exceptionally uncertain, the government of India has recognised the importance and value of blockchain technology in the future growth of the economy and other sectors.
In lieu of facing frauds, black market and other underworld activities, the government of India had put a soft ban on cryptocurrencies using banks to disallow and reject all kinds of transactions related to cryptocurrency. The anonymity was a major concern for the government to implement this decision when the cryptocurrency market had started to interest people in India. But in May of 2020, the Supreme Court had ruled out the decision taken by the Indian government, stating that the decision had not possessed any valid evidence.
With this statement, the advancement of cryptocurrency among Indian citizens had sparked a new flame. After the ban was lifted by the Reserve bank of India (RBI), within a few weeks, investors resumed their heavy investment in the crypto market. Since then, the number of investors and traders have started increasing in a drastic measure.
The market continues to boom under uncertainty
Despite facing uncertain circumstances and regulations that are yet to be decided by the Indian government, the crypto market continues to develop further in India. As people have started to gain more confidence with time, the leading cryptocurrency – Bitcoin, has rapidly become a hot investment source for Indians who were always interested in gold. In terms of crypto users, Indians are now catching up with the U.K and U.S., who have around 23 million and 2.3 million crypto users, respectively.
Crypto market may soon surpass the gold
Gold has always been the most popular investment for Indians; from the rich to the middle class, people from all kinds of backgrounds have always heavily invested in gold. Research data from the World Gold Council stated that Indian citizens aged below 34 are less interested in gold than older or traditional Indians.
It is to be noted that in comparison to the gold holdings among Indian citizens, the market of cryptocurrency is still lacking significant investments, but the popularity of cryptocurrency is growing at a rapid pace, and it may soon surpass the entire valuation of gold investments.
