The rapid growth of communication technologies and supporting hardware affected most of our day-to-day lives. With more and more companies taking their operations online, economies have turned more flexible and productive. Virtual growth turned viral in the last decade, with there being a huge rise in the number of online users. Hence, the newest business phenomenon to take the world by a storm is cryptocurrency. Crypto-currency is essentially virtual money that buyers can use electronically to carry out financial activities. The use of such virtual currency has become largely widespread and India is not too far behind. Here’s a look at the future of the crypto-currency market in India.
Recent Developments
Recently, a lot of talks is going on regarding the future of crypto-currency in India in the last few years. With talks of a ban on the horizon, the entire country is eager to know about the future of this economy within the country. Also, an RTI revealed that the RBI had neither researched nor consulted experts before filing for the ban on crypto-currency. Hence, the Government has refrained from clarifying the enforcing of this ban, and crypto-currencies future depends on this decision. Just last year, Mr. Subhash Chandra Garg, (Economic Affairs Secretary) said that his committee is developing a template to govern the crypto-currency influx.
The “Banning of crypto-currency Bill 2019” has proposed a 10-year sentence to people found transferring or dealing in such virtual money. Interestingly, crypto-currency cannot be banned as users have the option of holding it for as long as required. However, the RBI stated that virtual currencies can improve the existing financial system’s efficiency but may become a threat due to the lack of governing rules. Therefore, the board decided to ban the use of such currency for their dealings. But, the RBI has specified that entities providing such services may continue to do so for a stipulated time-frame. However, this is not the end of the crypto-currency market in India.
The Global Landscape
Even in 2018, the global market had over 1564 crypto-currencies and more than 9422 verified exchanges. The market value of all traded crypto-currencies soared over $275 Billion with the daily volume being around $18 million. The Bitcoin owns 45% of the market share at $142.2 Billion with a market price of Rs 5,35,767. India with more than 1 billion people has a flourishing and prospective economy that can greatly accelerate the growth of such crypto-currencies. As a country, India is undergoing an economic renaissance with the IMF hailing it as the fastest-growing emerging economy. Over 40% of India’s population uses the internet, making crypto-currency a viable financial asset.
Rise in India
As early as 2012, Bitcoin transactions were taking place within India, though the crypto-currency was still in its infancy. At this time, only crypto hobbyists dealt in Bitcoin. A year later, Bitcoin went viral, gaining a huge market in several countries around the world with a few businesses even beginning to accept Bitcoin payment. For instance, a pizza shop in Warli was the first restaurant to accept Bitcoin payments in India.
Within a small time-frame, cryptocurrency exchanges became a normal affair in India and pioneers such as BtcxIndia, Koinex, Unocoin, and Coinsecure began trading. Soon enough, Zebpay and Bitcoin-India joined them and the industry grew to a modest level in 2013 with Bitcoin ATMs springing up in major Indian cities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetization policy in 2016, and many businessmen with large money holdings bought large orders of Bitcoin. The demonetisation also helped people realise that paper money isn’t exactly “real” as it has no support system. This belief led many Indians to look for alternative currency models.
The Future of Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency is now used to purchase virtual goods and even physical goods. Therefore, it offers great opportunities to companies and business people to monetize a lot of digital applications. Crypto-currency can become parts of social networks, social games, loyalty point schemes and even peer to peer networks.
The offer-based method of propagation allows online gamers to earn cryptocurrency by watching advertising videos, undertaking surveys, or even winning social games. Such implementations will help in the wide-spread use of crypto-currency as not just a financial token, but as a marketing method. By awarding users with crypto-currency for successfully completing a given task, companies can enforce an efficient and secure loyalty scheme.
To date over 600,000 Indians, use Bitcoin, and the number will grow exponentially in the years to come due to economic reforms. With India being the 7th largest economy in the world with a GDP worth over $2.5 trillion, it comes as no surprise that the future of crypto-currency looks bright in India and people are taking help from Crypto Exchange development companies in India in order to develop their cryptocurrency-based websites. In the future, the government looks all set to regulate Bitcoin in stages, and the economy will welcome these changes. With countless investment opportunities and avenues to choose from, with a little support from the government, cryptocurrency can develop to become a major player in India.