As the cryptocurrency market evolves, people are largely buying crypto. And Indians, especially NRIs are no exception. With this, the Indian cryptocurrency market is expected to grow 2X faster at $241 million by 2030. These days many Indian ex-pats are increasingly experimenting with cryptocurrencies to remit money to their families back home and to save commissions charges by wire transfer companies and other middlemen.
Industry trackers reveal that the sudden growth in crypto investments even in smaller towns across India has opened doors to people to explore its utilities. Moreover, the process of remittances through cryptocurrencies into India is more efficient and faster than the conventional process, and all transactions are visible on the blockchain network from a regulatory point of view.
Remittances in India are pegged at around $80 billion these are mainly transferred through banking or other financial channels. Experts say that the way Indians are leaning towards crypto assets and decentralised finance, remittances through crypto assets are only set to grow. It is especially because transferring smaller amounts can be expensive through conventional services.
Several global blockchain start-ups such as Satoshi Citadel in the Philippines have already started offering services to facilitate bitcoin remittances in a user-friendly way. As of today, there are around 1.5 crore Indian crypto investors who hold digital assets worth Rs 15,000 crore. All the large cryptocurrency exchanges witnessed at least a 100 percent increase in their trading and investment in the past few months.
As per experts, Bitcoin was the preferred choice for remittances but its transaction costs are rising, currencies such as Ripple and Dash are good replacements because of substantially lower fees.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has had a face-off with cryptocurrency exchanges earlier. It had instructed banks to stop dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges, however, it had to back off because of an order by the top court of India. The Union government is planning to define cryptocurrencies in the new draft bill and could treat them as an asset for all purposes, including taxation.
