Bitcoin India: Prices Rise To $10026 Inspite Of RBI's Mandate & Resulting FUD!
In an interesting turn of events, the price of BTC in India has been steadily in rising to match the global prices. Only hours ago on Coinome.com the price of BTC was same as on CMC. This is great because in recent times BTC prices in India have been lower by around 3-8% on most Indian exchanges. But today, I was able to withdraw at global prices or as I publish this post, we're about $100 higher than CMC-which is awesome!
Prior to the RBI mandate and India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's budget speech, BTC usually traded 5-30% above global prices in India. Yes 30% on some days! But in the last 2 months, it has generally been on the lower side, sometimes absolutely shit!
Most new investors from India are typically weary and lacking knowledge of the cryptocurrency domain have been panic selling at every one of these events causing the demand and volumes to drop significantly. Coinsecure's BTC theft also resulted in a major drop in BTC trading volumes in India. It was one of the bigger BTC exchanges after all.
However, in the past week BTC prices in INR have risen back upto as high as 670,000 INR ($10026). This is fantastic because it has been a while since prices in India managed to overtake global prices. A year ago we'd trade in our BTC for 20% premium on a daily basis which was absolutely amazing. Those days participation from India on Steemit was also very high.
The negative news propelled by Indian media FUD and ignorance on part of investors has resulted in many Steemit users from India going on a selling spree and also reducing their activity on the platform. It's true we have new users joining in and i'm on-boarding many now and then. But, the fact is that many are scared about government intervention and lack of knowledge of this space has made it difficult to onboard new users and retain some of the older ones.
However, now it seems as though many investors from India are starting to taking advantage of the window to purchase and sell btc until June, 2018. RBI's mandate allows exchanges to remain operational with Crypto/INR pairs until end of June. If RBI gets a stay order we might see the situation improve.
However, p2p trading allows anyone to encash easily without any legal issues in India. This is because most p2p transactions are almost untraceable. Because, government cannot pinpoint the nature of the transactions and why it took place unless the people transacting decide to declare their reasons-which could be anything under the sun.
People are utilising the remaining time to buy and hold BTC and they can easily withdraw at a later date. Now that prices of BTC are on the rise again from its $6000 lows, it presents new opportunities for the smart Indian investor to get involved in cryptocurrencies once again. It would be wise to remember that Indian market specific issues have no bearing on international prices, volume and trading activity.
If you panic sold I hope you will now reconsider your stance. If you are buying then consider holding for the long haul. There's a possibility that the government might soften its stance and bring in some policy to regulate trading of cryptocurrencies.
Even if it doesn't happen, you can use p2p channels for buying and selling and that'll make using Steemit just as easy as it is now. It's just a matter of time.
Steemit users from India, just be prepared for the worst. At this point it wouldn't be a bad idea to engage in p2p transactions with other users from India. However, if you do, exercise caution. I would love to see our market grow so that one day we have an escrow based p2p channel for buying/selling Steem from India.
I hope you have signed the ongoing petition here! Stay tuned for more updates on the cryptocurrency side of things from India.
If you like my work kindly resteem it to your friends. You may also continue reading my recent posts which might interest you:
- Steem.Chat Contest #24
- Why You Should Vote For @firepower As Witness—Witness Campaign Post From India!
- Cryptocurrency India: An Update Regarding Reserve Bank's Ban & Link To Petition!
Great india Will definstely play an important role in crypto equation
Wait cryptocurrencies have different prices all over the world ?
wtf
Yip i am from South Africa our northern neighbours zim when mugarbage was around traded btc higher than anywhere on earth double its value at a point even. Supply demand etc. Nothing is stopping cryptos now. Exciting times ahead. . Cheer$;)
Yeah. For example, Steem and SBD are sometimes slightly higher in value in Korea as the trading volumes are highest there. When BTC hit 20K in US, we saw 25K in India.
I had no idea about that lol :)
I guess from the lowest crypto last couple of months will be risen up in the middle of the year. hoping india and other coinbase will be great soon.
Dear, I think we Indians have to pay more for everything to buy in India, in comparison to the other parts of the world. I had to pay 10%more to buy bitcoins which I exchanged to get Steem. So, steem were costly for me. Also, the USD/INR exchange rates goes against us as it also degrade the value of our money.
I think recent slowdown in crypto price in India was beneficial for us as we had opportunity to buy them at comparatively lower price. Also, we had opportunity to boost our SP on account of this event. I think this event had more positive effects than the negative ones.
I agree, the last few months presented a great opportunity to buy Steem or any altcoin and even btc at low rates.
How does one encash bitcoin using a p2p transaction? How exaclty is any online cash transaction p2p? Unless you exchange physical cash.
Moreover, why do you think bitcoin trading at a premium in india a good thing? That's just exchanges screwing with investors when demand goes up. 30% premium is a joke and exchange price mismatch is a hindrance to bitcoin adoption, not a positive.
https://localbitcoins.com/ - There are sellers who will give you cash. So what's the issue? Even if it's a online transaction it's still no issue. Transacting with exchanges in an unregulated market like India poses its own problem w.r.t taxation.
For Steemit users from India it is good because users get more when they withdraw. That aside, I agree it's no good for building the market. Exchange price manipulation isn't good but it's there. What can we do to stop that? Not much really.
Yeah, there are issues with cash, although that seems to be the only way out. Storing cash is problematic but may be if one is investing small amounts, it is ok. Also, by p2p i thought you meant, people are able to get cash online after selling bitcoin. which is why i thought one leg has to be cash. The source of cash can also lead to problems. Given that this is a new tax source for the govt., i am sure agencies are tracking developments in this space very heavily.
regarding premiums, there isn't much one can do. There is just a very strong case for more exchanges to pop-up or p2p portals that can allow fair trading of bitcoin - the potential for user acquisition is immense.
Thank god! Hope the raise is stable enough for it to get back to its peak one day soon. Its so tough to explain " btc is not a bubble to people "
I think it will go back up steadily. :)
Yeah @firepower we all know India is a great country but why government is not taking actions against AML but only cryptocurrencies and whole blockchain technology.
Its really painful.
P2P trading will grow surely in India.
Thanks for informative post again.
We also recommend you to download our android app for steemit platform @supersteemian you can download it from Google Play Store and if possible give a review post on it.
Its developed by 3 of us Indians.
Resilience at its very best .
Indians and Asians are driving the price like crazy. This bull run bout goes to them..............Mad respect and hats off!
Such a great feeling.
I didn't even know there was a big regional difference. Learned a lot from this. Are there other parts of the world with big BTC price differences?
You can see the prices on https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/#markets - Usually in bull runs you can see greater differences in price because of higher demand in some markets.
I like you're so involved and thoughtful in your community @firepower!