On the 4th of March, the order which formerly banned banks from crypto dealings was canceled by India's supreme court. This action immediately caused a sudden increase in trading activities in the country.
Within 48 hours the decision was made, Cashaa India, one of the platforms that offer cryptocurrency banking as services saw an increase of about 800% in trading volume. The CEO of Cashaa, Kumar Gaurav stated that over 600 BTC was traded on Cashaa on the very first day after the announcement.
Guarav said that traders wanted to take advantage of the new opportunity as there were speculations that the government was going to interfere and declare crypto as illegal in the country.
But ever since the initial surge in the volumes of trades, the momentum is still going strong regardless of both the local and international crisis.
On the 6th of March, one of India's big lenders, Yes Bank, went under causing people to continuously lose confidence in the traditional banking system and further increased the credibility of Bitcoin and other cryptos.
Traditional assets such as bonds and equities also took a hit due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, NIFTY 50, the standard equity index in India fell about 23% with the Indian rupee also hitting a new low of 77.40/USD.
Unlike India's traditional assets which can only be traded from 9 am till 3.30 pm, crypto can be traded at any time of the day. Also, the decentralization and borderless payment mechanism of the cryptosystem makes it most suitable for the current situation resulted from the coronavirus crisis.
Cryptocurrency now seems like the only go-to investment for the citizens of India because, despite the nationwide lockdown imposed by the Prime minister on the 24th of March, Indians are still massively investing in cryptocurrency.
Source: Coindesk
