Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Despite skepticism in some quarters, the global cryptocurrency market has hit the USD 2 trillion mark for the first time in recent months, indicating increasing acceptance of crypto-assets the world over, including in India.
Media reports on Friday said Bitcoin, the oldest and most popular crypto-currency, is now the most expensive one as well: a single coin is worth USD 46,000 (Rs. 34 lakh). Bitcoin’s market capitalization is more than USD 848 million across the world.
“It has witnessed a fantastic rally recently and the latest Ethereum upgrade, also known as London Hard Fork, has boosted the Ether price,” reports quoting Shivam Thakral, CEO, BuyUcoin, said.
With globalization, electronic financial transactions replacing physical ones, and most things moving online, crypto-assets are also shifting from the fringe to the mainstream. Several crypto-currency brands have become accepted as a form of payment.
“The current bull is likely to continue, and Bitcoin could hit the USD 100,000 mark by the end of 2021,” Thakral said.
WazirX, the Indian cryptocurrency exchange, has witnessed an astonishing over 2,600 percent growth in user signups from the country’s Tier 2 and 3 cities, with higher participation from women hailing from smaller towns compared to their urban counterparts.
At present, the Indian cryptocurrency exchange has more than 73 lakh users and clocked over USD 21.8 billion in trading volume so far this year. More than 1.5 crore Indians now hold over Rs.1,500 crore worth of crypto assets.
“Crypto-assets have immense potential to remove the financial barriers for rural India, and provide cheaper access to capital, and more online jobs,” Nischal Shetty, CEO, WazirX, said.
Industry experts believe that crypto-assets are likely to become the most important asset class of the 21st century.