Cryptocurrency is an encrypted and decentralized virtual currency. There are two types of cryptocurrencies, public and private cryptocurrency. There are approximately 41 cryptocurrencies used in India. Bitcoin, Ripple, Altcoin, and Eherteum are some of the popular forms of cryptocurrencies used in the country.

Adoption of cryptocurrency in India:

India is one of the biggest markets for cryptocurrency exchange in Asia with the second highest adoption rate across the globe. On the Global Crypto Adoption Index, Indias index score had been 0.37 in 2021, after Vietnam, which had the highest adoption index score of 1. Cryptocurrency adoption has grown by ~595.26% in India, during the 2020 2021 period. The country currently has ~15 million people holding cryptocurrency assets. In spite of the several risks those cryptocurrency transactions accompany, like that of investors risks, market threats, cybercrime issues, and increase in tax burden, people made huge investments on the platform.

However, with several appeals made by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ban cryptocurrencies; especially the private cryptocurrencies, the current exponential growth rate of the sector is expected to hamper.

Impact of COVID-19:

The onset of the pandemic followed by the multiple lockdowns have led to an economic distress in the country. People suffered from job loss and economic crisis. As an impact, people started to look for alternate earning avenues, including trading. Currently, cryptocurrency is one of Indias fastest growing sectors and trading opportunity for the common mass. Therefore, investment on cryptocurrency skyrocketed by ~612% in 2020, during the pandemic period. India cryptocurrency market witnessed an exponential growth since the outburst of the pandemic.

Cryptocurrency exchanges:

Bitbns
CoinDCX
CoinSwitch Kuber
Unocoin
WazirX