India’s P2P Crypto Market Triples Even With Massive Regulatory Uncertainties

Fears for another blanket ban within India’s crypto-asset market are quite high, but the space has seen incredible growth despite it. In particular, the peer-to-peer (P2P) trading space for Bitcoin (BTC) has seen an incredible surge within the Asian country, with the surge still growing at the time of writing. In the first week of August, this surge saw new all-time highs hit the P2P trading space for BTC.

RBI Ban Lift Caused The Spark

This incredible spike of growth had been originally catalyzed thanks too the decision from India’s Supreme Court to repeal a ban the Reserve Bank of India had made against crypto businesses. Under this ban, it was forbidden for local banks, as well as various financial institutions, from providing services to crypto investors and exchanges.

However, data gleaned from both LocalBitcoins and Paxful has revealed that the weekly trading volumes for India’s P2P BTC had been consistently gaining ground since April of this year. An example of this would be in August’s first week when the local trade quota for BTC stood at an impressive $4.4 million. This stands as a stark increase from the $1.52 million in weekly trade volumes that the P2P BTC trading space saw back in January of 2020.

Growth Continues To Rise

Alongside this, an essential thing to make note of, is the P2P trade volumes for BTC being recorded at $2.28 million back in March. This was when positive crypto sentiment was at its peak in India, as the Supreme Court had just lifted the ban of the RBI. With the trade volumes in August being almost twice that, it’s clear that the P2P BTC trading space in India has gained incredible ground.

The Mandatory Public Statements

Nischal Shetty stands as the CEO of WazirX, an Indian crypto exchange, and gave comments about this massive increase in P2P trading within India. He explained that the RBI’s restrictions imposed back in 2018 made the conversion from Rupees to crypto, and back, quite difficult. However, since the ban was lifted, direct banking channels have been made by a number of crypto exchanges, which allow for withdrawals and deposits of local currency. This, in turn, is why there’s a massive surge in P2P trading, Shetty stated.

In regards to growth of WazirX, Shetty highlighted that the exchange had executed an impressive $135 million in P2P since until now. He highlighted that the P2P volumes for the exchange had seen a monthly growth of 33%. He highlighted the steady increase in daily trade volumes and user signups ever since the Supreme Court had overruled the banking ban on crypto as a whole.