In 2011, Vishal Gupta bought his first batch of bitcoins at Rs 2,000 each. Today, that investment is worth Rs 2 crore. And he's not the only Indian to have benefited from the bitcoin rally over the last few years.
According to Bloomberg, the eight-year old cryptocurrency created by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym used by the creator of bitcoin, has surged more than 600 percent in the last year. And it turns out India hasn't been left out of the party.
As of June, India accounted for nearly 11 percent of international trade, according to bitcoin trade analyst Chris Burniske.
Hello #India 🇮🇳 we've been expecting you! Very curious to see where this goes for #bitcoin. h/t @BKBrianKelly pic.twitter.com/9uacy5GZH9
There are many digital currencies in the market such as Litecoin, Peercoin and Ether but, Bitcoin is the most popular one.
Regulators in India and around the world are wary of the growing adoption of cryptocurrencies. The Reserve Bank of India maintains that there are potential financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks that users, traders and holders of virtual currencies are exposing themselves to.
In a February notification on its website, the RBI said that it had not authorised or licensed any company to operate in any cryptocurrency.
As such, any user, holder, investor, trader, etc. dealing with virtual currencies will be doing so at their own risk.RBI Statement (February 1)These caveats and potential risks are not denting the enthusiasm for Bitcoin in India. “The regulator just warns users that cryptocurrencies are volatile, and you could lose your funds, but they have never said it is illegal and you will be put behind bars,” Saurabh Agrawal, co-founder of bitcoin wallet Zebpay told BloombergQuint.
According to Zebpay's Twitter account, the wallet crossed one million downloads on India's Google Play Store last month.
Also Read: Bitcoin The New Gold For Indian Millennials
Gupta says that he was wary of bitcoins when he first learned about them from a friend's Facebook post in 2011. For two weeks, he argued with his friend about the shortcomings of the cryptocurrency. “For the longest time, I thought it was some sort of a ponzi scheme,” he says. In hindsight, the bitcoin crorepati is glad he eventually had a change of heart.
Also Read: Bitcoin Dividend Play Is Leaving Other Digital Coins In The Dust
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