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Mumbai: Indians are flocking back to invest in cryptocurrencies as Bitcoin hit a three-month high of $50,000 on Sunday amidst the global crypto rush.

On Monday and Tuesday, Indian crypto exchanges and foreign exchanges that cater to Indians have seen a huge spurt in their trading volumes and trading values in most cases at least 50% to 100% respectively.

This time though Indians are not just buying Bitcoins but are also hedging their bets and buying other crypto assets.

We saw a 3x surge on the buy-side and a 2x increase on the sell-side, said Shivam Thakral, CEO at BuyUcoin, a cryptocurrency exchange.

Though even the exchanges are unable to pinpoint the sudden spurt in trading.

Our daily average volume has also increased from an average of $100 million to over $300 million during market peaks. As of the 23rd of August, on average, our 24-hour trading volumes have been around $100 million. However, last week our average trading volume crossed $300 million.

Bitcoin had hit an all-time high and touched $64,000 in April this year.

This was followed by a sell-off at a global stage and the prices had dipped to $30,000 due to Chinese authorities clamping down on Bitcoins mining operations and regulators threatening to bring in domestic laws to regulate the currency.

The prices have been steadily rising since mid-July as the confidence of many buyers seems to be returning to crypto assets.

Industry trackers say this time around, not only have the old investors become more active, even new ones seem to be coming in.

As we see a surge in the global adoption of crypto assets, OKEx.com has witnessed new users sign-ups increase by almost 50% in the past month. In the past month, we have seen almost a 90% increase in trade volumes, said Jay Hao, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange OKEx.com.

BuyUcoin witnessed more than a 3x increase in sign-ups during August as compared to July and 4x when compared to June.

There are close to 15 million crypto investors in India holding digital assets worth 15,000 crore.

In India, investors seem to have made large investments into the crypto assets during the price dip, which has resulted in the latest bull-run across crypto assets, say industry trackers.

BuyUcoin has experienced a surge in trade volumes both on the buy and sell-side. Investors are buying in the bull-run and holders have liquidated profits, said Thakral.

In the last two years, several Indian investors seem to have warmed up to crypto-assets and some have even taken up trading.

Although Bitcoin continues to remain the favourite, other crypto-assets including Ethereum, Dogecoin, Polkadot, Ripple, Litecoin, Filecoin, Cardano (ADA) and Cardano too have seen some traction on Indian exchanges.

India wants to regulate cryptocurrencies but there is no clarity around how that would be done.

The government has come out with a proposed Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, but no regulations have been finalised.

In mid-August, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the new laws around crypto assets are awaiting approval of the Union Cabinet.

On Tuesday, Bitcoin was down 1%, while other major cryptocurrencies were trading 0.5% up or down.

More here:
Bitcoin rally draws Indians back to cryptos - Economic Times