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Published: Jun 7, 2022, 5:51pm
The increase in popularity of cryptocurrencies has led to a significant rise in the number of cryptocurrency exchanges in India. Cryptocurrency exchanges simply act as a platform for buying and selling digital currencies and exchanging them for fiat currencies such as the Indian rupee (INR) or the U.S. dollar (USD).
Here’s our guide to help you choose a suitable cryptocurrency exchange depending on your financial goals.
0.2%/ 0.2%
450 +
INR 100
0.2%/ 0.2%
450 +
INR 100
WazirX is one of the fastest growing cryptocurrency exchanges of India with more than 60 lakhs registered users. This platform has a user-friendly interface and is available across web, android, iOS and windows apps.
Key Features:
0.2%/ 0.2%
340+
INR 100
0.2%/ 0.2%
340+
INR 100
CoinDCX is regarded as one of the safest crypto trading platforms of India. The total number of registered users is more than 1.3 crore. This platform provides a wide range of crypto related products and services such as margin trading, futures and lending options. CoinDCX mobile app is available both on android and iOS.
Key Features:
0.1%/ 0.1%
80+
INR 100
0.1%/ 0.1%
80+
INR 100
CoinSwitch Kuber has more than 1.5 core registered users . The users can trade in more than 80 cryptocurrencies with as low as INR 100. This platform provides a variety of trading pairs such as INR to crypto exchange, crypto to crypto and crypto to INR trading. It has also launched the crypto rupee index, the benchmark index for measuring the performance of the Indian rupee based crypto market.
Key Features:
0.1% / 0.1%
600
INR 100
0.1% / 0.1%
600
INR 100
The users of Binance India have access to trade in more than 600 cryptocurrencies in INR, at a very low fee rate structure. At present, Binance has nine crores registered users. As Binance acquired WazirX in 2019, so Indians can purchase the currencies tradable on Binance platform through the WazirX wallet, and thus, can set up the connection between both the websites.
Key Features:
NIL / 0.3%
80+
INR 1,000
NIL / 0.3%
80+
INR 1,000
UnoCoin exchnage is one of the leading and oldest exchanges for buying, selling and storing Bitcoin along with the other merchant processing activities. The user can trade in different 80 kinds of digital currencies on this platform.
Key Features:
0.25%/ 0.25%
390 +
INR 100
0.25%/ 0.25%
390 +
INR 100
With almost 400 cryptocurrencies listed, Bitbns enables its users to trade in the wide variety of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Binance Coin and more. The total number of users registered with this platform is more than 40 lakh.
Key Features:
0.24%/0.24%
130+
INR 20
0.24%/0.24%
130+
INR 20
BuyUCoin is popular among the millennial users because of its easy user interface and features such as– real-time spot trading, free wallet, cashback, and lifetime commission on referrals. The total number of registered users is more than 10 lakh.
Key Features:
0.15%/0.25%
100+
INR 100
0.15%/0.25%
100+
INR 100
ZebPay is known among the crypto investors for earning interest on idle crypto holdings. Currently, the exchange is supporting more than 100 crypto coins at its platform with almost 50 lakh registered users.
Key Features:
While evaluating and choosing the top cryptocurrency exchanges in India, Forbes Advisor analyzed these exchanges on the basis of the following parameters:
Cryptocurrency exchange is an online trading platform that acts like an intermediary between buyer and seller of cryptocurrencies.These platforms enable trading in cryptocurrencies in exchange for digital and fiat currencies. These exchanges facilitate a user to deposit money via methods such as direct bank transfer, net banking or P2P etc and charge a commission or fee for every transaction done using its services. If you want to know more on how to purchase a cryptocurrency in detail, read How To Buy Cryptocurrency. The process of opening an account with any of these exchanges is fairly simple. After selecting an appropriate exchange, a user needs to follow these steps to open a trading account:
These kinds of exchanges are the most common kind of platform that ensures easy, simple processes along with a very smooth user interface of crypto trading. As the name suggests, a central entity is responsible for governing and regulating these exchanges.
Every order or transaction is recorded, validated by the company to avoid any further discrepancies. The user’s fund is deposited in the wallet, managed by the CEX. And, to open an account here, the user needs to fulfill the KYC requirements where personal information of the user is shared.
These kinds of exchanges are truly decentralized in nature, meaning there is no company or institution regulating these exchanges. The trades that take place on the exchange are fully automated and are executed through smart contracts and decentralized applications. At the same time, no KYC and no personal information is required here. DEXs are known to be more secure as they are automated via smart contracts, which are being written keeping required security checks in mind.
However, the interface of DEXs is not as smooth as CEXs, which generally impacts transaction speed and its volume. CEXs might prove to be more useful for beginners and novice traders and DEXs for experienced one.
Hybrid exchanges have the best features of both decentralized and centralized exchanges. A hybrid crypto exchange is still in a developemental phase. It has the liquidity feature just like the centralized platforms and maintains the anonymity and security, like the decentralized exchanges. One of the most notable features while transacting through HEX trading is that, there are no taker fees and gas fees involved here.
In India, different cryptocurrency exchanges levies different charges and fees. Let’s have a look in more detail at what these charges are:
Majority of the cryptocurrency exchanges in India, such as WazirX, Zebpay, Bitbns and Unocoin, have completely waived off the joining fee. However, there may be a very small amount of membership fee in the case of inactive accounts.
This fee is charged when the user deposits money or coins to the crypto exchange to initiate the buying or selling. Deposit fee amount depends totally on how the user has transferred the money, whether through payment service providers, Mobikwik, a crypto wallet, UPI, Net banking or bank transfers.
Trading charges are the most important part of cryptocurrency exchange’s fee mechanism. Trading fees may be levied as a flat percentage of the amount of crypto that a trader buys or sells, or an exchange may charge according to the orders placed, such as makers and takers, are charged differently. So before going further, it is crucial to understand- Maker and Taker fees.
A maker is a party that creates liquidity on the exchange by selling cryptocurrency
The taker is the party that takes it off the liquidity by buying the cryptocurrencies.
Both maker and taker pays a certain amount of fees for the transaction. However, makers generally pay less.
The trading charges vary across exchanges, ranging from almost 0% to 0.25% in most of the exchanges. However, it is to be noted that certain exchanges claim to charge the user zero fees, one must look carefully, that if they are charging in the form of spread — the difference between the rate of buying or selling the cryptocurrency. And, generally this rate is higher as compared to the trading fee.
Some exchanges charge the user on the withdrawal of money into fiat. Withdrawing money happens when a user places a sell order on the exchange and then the funds reflect in his or her wallet. The user here can withdraw money fully or partially, into their registered bank account, for which he or she may be charged. The user also has the option of making a withdrawal in coins, that also has a cost attached.
To purchase a cryptocurrency of your own, you will need to have a cryptocurrency exchange where buyer and seller exchange fiat currency for crypto coins. Once you choose an exchange, then you need to make a deposit into your account, to start trading in cryptocurrencies. At present, payment done via UPI and Mobikwik has been disabled in India due to regulatory issues. However, the user can deposit into an account via bank transfer, net banking and through P2P transfers. Once you have money in your account, then you can easily place an order to buy your favorite coin, just by tapping a button.
Trading and dealing in cryptocurrencies is legal, under any provision of law in India. As far as the regulations are concerned, cryptocurrency exchanges are very much allowed to have their operations in India.
Yes, with the help of an exchange platform the user can easily convert cryptocurrency to cash, or can convert fiat currencies to cryptocurrency.
Yes, all crypto trading platforms charge fees in one form or the other. Some of the exchanges follow a maker and taker model and thus charge differently from makers and takers while placing an order. However, others do not differentiate between makers and takers and charge a flat fee.
Cryptocurrency wallets or digital wallets are a place to store cryptocurrencies in a much-secured way. The user can hold their wallet through an exchange account or outside of the exchange. The user also has an online or hot wallet, which is connected via the internet to your desktop PC or mobile phone. Another option is cold wallet, which is not connected via the internet and thus is the most secure option to store cryptocurrency. With cold storage, one must remember the private keys which is a cryptic number for your cryptocurrency.
Rashi Maheshwari is a Deputy Editor for Forbes Advisor India. She has more than a decade of experience working in news, public relations and communications. In the past, she has worked with CNBC Awaaz, CryptoWire, among others and has covered beats including insurance, personal investments and cryptocurrency. She is a travel enthusiast and would like to visit every country and try as many different culinary specialities as possible.
