There is no official data available on cyrptocurrency holdings and the user base.
($1 = 74.4310 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Nupur Anand; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
There are an estimated 15 million to 20 million cryptocurrency investors in India, with total crypto holdings of around 400 billion rupees, according to industry estimates.
June 16 (Reuters) – Major cryptocurrency volatility has hit stablecoins, typically considered the market’s safer-havens, with investors pulling money out of the sector and several losing the peg to their underlying assets.
“Sango is backed by the potential of its natural (resources),” said Michel Muna, a 35-year-old Cameroonian who imports food and drink, referring to the CAR’s pledge to “tokenize” its mineral wealth.
While some uncertainty remains on the impact of the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission ruling on other stablecoins, the market appears to have adjusted, according to some crypto players.
SINGAPORE, May 13 (Reuters) – Cryptocurrencies nursed large losses on Friday, with bitcoin pinned below $30,000 and set for a record losing streak as the collapse of TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin, rippled through markets.
Crypto assets have also been swept up in broad selling of risky investments on worries about high inflation and rising interest rates.
Sentiment is particularly fragile, however, as tokens supposed to be pegged to the dollar have faltered.
MUMBAI, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Plans by the Indian government for a new bill that would bar most private cryptocurrencies has triggered heavy selling in the country’s digital currency markets, as investors look to exit positions despite the losses, said traders and investors.
Ownership of digital currencies in Turkey was the highest in the world at 27.1% followed by Argentina at 23.5% — well above global crypto ownership rate estimated at 11.9% — according to data from research firm GWI.
Binance USD is the third-biggest stablecoin behind market leader Tether and USD Coin, with about $16 billion in circulation, and is the seventh-biggest cryptocurrency, according to market tracker CoinGecko.
Instead rivals are vying to cash in on the woes of BUSD, the world’s third-biggest stablecoin, whose market value has shrunk to $12.9 billion from $16.1 billion, with its market share narrowing to 9.4% from 12.1%, according to CoinGecko.com.
Other algorithmic stablecoins have also faced de-pegging in the past few weeks, including the Frax stablecoin, which has since recovered, and the Neutrino USD ,which dropped as low as $0.93 on Wednesday and is still trading under the dollar at $0.966.
Onshore investors now trade bitcoin on platforms owned by Chinese exchanges that have relocated overseas, including Huobi and OKEx.
Once-dormant Chinese trading chatrooms on social media have become busier.
Central African Republic (CAR), 币安币 (you can look here) one of the world’s poorest countries, became the first African state to make bitcoin legal tender in April, baffling many cryptocurrency experts and prompting the International Monetary Fund to warn it was not a “panacea” for Africa’s challenges.
May 2 (Reuters) – Can inherently volatile cryptocurrencies become safe-havens?
Apparently they can in some parts of the world, such as Argentina and Turkey, where soaring prices and tumbling local currencies have forced people to seek refuge in digital coins.
Much of the safe-haven buying has been of stablecoins such as USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT), which are crypto tokens pegged one-to-one to a traditional asset such as the U.S.
dollar or gold, giving investors an alternative to scarce dollars.
The government will allow only certain cryptocurrencies to promote the underlying technology and its uses, according to a legislative agenda released late on Tuesday for the winter session of Parliament set to start this month.
One potential winner of the current turmoil is USD Coin, backed by reserves of cash and U.S.
Treasury notes, which has seen its market cap steadily climb to more than $54 billion from $52 billion over the past month even as other stablecoins struggled. (Reporting by Medha Singh and Lisa Pauline Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Alex Richardson) ))
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, steadied near $2,000 on Friday after a drop as low as $1,700 on Thursday.
Bitcoin and ether are about 60% below record peaks reached in November.
The government has said its digital coin project will leapfrog the wartorn, mineral-rich country into a better future.
It is aiming to raise almost $1 billion over the next year from the sale of its Sango Coin, according to its investment website, even as prices of such assets have tumbled this year.