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India’s largely developed middle class has been embracing cryptocurrencies to hedge their currency risks, even as a foreign-currency crisis intensifies and the country is plagued by an outbreak of the deadly coronavirus that was initially linked to victims of India’s worst-ever flooding. Indian officials say they are working on contingency plans as they struggle to contain a disease that killed thousand of People around the world.
MUMBAI — India, the world’s second-most populous country, is increasingly embracing cryptocurrencies amid domestic economic issues and the nationwide coronavirus-related lockdown.
Posters for currencies such as Bitcoin, ethereum, and Litecoin have been displayed across banks, health facilities, universities, and government offices as a means to raise awareness of and support for these digital currencies. A digital currency to be exact, because that is how the government of the country, notoriously known for its hefty cash, has been holding on to their currency, the rupee, since the 1990s. Currency management is very old in the country and was set up to limit the flow of dollars into foreign hands.
Cryptocurrencies have become the preferred technology for developers, from Indian start-ups to global investment house Goldman Sachs. Further, many Indians rely on the internet for business to accomplish tasks such as freelancing, such as Indian freelancers accessing jobs in the US to earn their livelihood. The country’s nation-wide economic downturn is forcing an additional burden on the country’s overloaded financial infrastructure.
Cashaa’s relative success can be gauged from the fact that the increase in the number of accounts in Cashaa’s network at the same time it found support from two major financial networks. Between Friday and Tuesday, 15,400 depositors simultaneously purchased their crypto-currency at an average price of $738. Cashaa’s network was currently processing more than 1,500 transactions a day, confirming that bitcoin has become the currency of choice for sending money.
Investor interest in bitcoin is likely sustained by round-the-clock trading, in contrast to Indian equity markets, which operate from 9 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. Monday to Friday. Further, it is a decentralized, peer-to-peer, and borderless payment mechanism designed for situations like the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
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Investors all around the world are interested in the Bitcoin ecosystem because they feel it has the potential to become a new infrastructure for remittance, and to enable instant remittances to developing economies that are not equipped with global payments systems. The trend is for a lot of foreign individuals to be investing in Bitcoin. This is the only payment mechanism that doesn’t require any third-party authority or mediation between two parties. While bitcoin is also borderless, its convenience and practicality make it especially attractive in the context of viral disease outbreak such as the present outbreak.
