Indian cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx says it is seeing record trading volumes despite a number of conditions that dampen trader sentiment such as the crypto banking ban imposed by the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Bitcoin.com reported.
Nischal Shetty, the exchange’s CEO, said that “In a flat market coupled with banking restriction,” there is little motivation for Indians to trade cryptocurrencies. However, he elaborated:
“The recent uptick in the crypto prices has gotten a lot of Indians trading again … whenever there’s volatility people forget the problems and start trading. That’s exactly the reason why we’re seeing our volumes shooting up so fast.”
In April, the RBI issued a circular banning financial institutions under its control from providing services to crypto companies. Responding to the banking restriction, Wazirx launched an exchange-escrowed peer-to-peer (P2P) platform, with Shetty repeatedly saying that the response to this service has been “tremendous.”
He further shared that his exchange has been “hitting new peaks in volume every month,” adding that this month it surpassed 200 BTC in daily trading volume for the first time. “200 BTC in 24 hours was our record high and the highest by any exchange in India right now,” he claimed. Noting that this record high was achieved within nine months of launching his exchange and during a bear market, he concluded:
“Considering the banking restriction in place, this is great news for the Indian crypto sector.”
The Indian government is expected to finalize the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in the near future. Commenting on the upcoming crypto regulatory framework, Shetty said that he has to remain optimistic, noting:
“I believe in our government, that they’ll listen to our voices. I’ve been running a Twitter campaign and it’s gaining traction amongst Indian crypto users. As the campaign grows it’ll be harder to ignore.”
Shetty started his Twitter campaign on October 31, calling for positive regulations for the Indian crypto space. Meanwhile, the country’s supreme court is set to hear the petitions against the RBI ban in January.
