Amid a hostile environment and regulatory uproar for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin BTC/USD, Dogecoin DOGE/USD and Shiba Inu SHIB/USD in India, several cryptocurrency exchanges are using peer-to-peer deals and direct deposits to overcome payment curbs imposed by the central bank according to the Economic Times.

In a peer-to-peer transaction, after receiving an order from a buyer, the cryptocurrency exchange shares the seller’s account details with them. The buyer directly sends the funds to the seller’s account and the seller then moves the cryptocurrency from their wallet with the exchange to the buyer’s wallet.

This came after India’s central bank’s unit National Payments Corporation of India, which governs the use of UPI in India, disassociated itself from the exchanges using its services to buy digital assets.

“This is not how an exchange should be functioning. It’s certainly less efficient. But apparently, there is no violation of any regulation or law. It’s a simple money transfer from A to B over net banking or IMPS or NEFT, and it’s happening outside the exchange,” an official with one of the exchanges requesting anonymity told ET.

Besides the payment hurdle, the cryptocurrency community has been imposed with taxes, including a 30% tax on profits from digital assets that came into force on April 1 and a 1% tax-deducted-at-source that will come into effect on July 1.

The regulatory uproar has sent many big-ticket cryptocurrency traders to switch to exchanges overseas. The government has been long mulling, bringing in a law to either regulate or tighten the use of digital assets in the country.

Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, Bitcoin was trading at $38,940, losing 1.88% in the last 24 hours, and Ethereum was trading at $2,908, down 2.69% over the same period.

To escape from the 30% crypto taxation, Indian traders must get rid of these 10 cryptocurrencies

The 30% crypto tax declared by the Indian government is a nightmare for the Indian crypto traders as they are already facing a huge loss over this. Some of them are even considering to plea to the Supreme court for a change in terms. Now it seems like a good time for the Indian traders to think about selling their digital assets as such huge taxation may not be convenient for them. Here are the top 10 cryptocurrencies that they should immediately sell before it is too late.

 

Ethereum (ETH)

The goal behind cryptocurrencies like Ethereum is to create a decentralized suite of financial products that anyone in the world can freely access, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, or faith. This aspect makes the implications for those in some countries more compelling because those without state infrastructure and state identifications can get access to bank accounts, loans, insurance, or a variety of other financial products. The applications on Ethereum are run on ether, its platform-specific cryptographic token. Ether (ETH) is like a vehicle for moving around on the Ethereum platform and is sought mostly by developers looking to develop and run applications inside Ethereum, or now, by investors looking to make purchases of other digital currencies using ether.

 

Litecoin (LTC)

Litecoin is based on an open-source global payment network that is not controlled by any central authority and uses scrypt as a PoW, which can be decoded with the help of consumer-grade central processing units (CPUs). Although Litecoin is like Bitcoin in many ways, it has a faster block generation rate and thus offers a faster transaction confirmation time. Other than developers, there are a growing number of merchants that accept cryptocurrencies like Litecoin.

 

Cardano (ADA)

Cardano (ADA) is an “Ouroboros proof-of-stake” cryptocurrency that was created with a research-based approach by engineers, mathematicians, and cryptography experts. Cardano aims to be the world’s financial operating system by establishing Defi products similar to Ethereum’s as well as providing solutions for chain interoperability, voter fraud, and legal contract tracing, among other things. 

 

Polkadot (DOT)

Polkadot (DOT) is one of the unique PoS cryptocurrencies aimed at delivering interoperability among other blockchains. Polkadot’s core component is its relay chain, which allows the interoperability of varying networks. It also allows for parachains or parallel blockchains with their own native tokens for specific-use cases.16

 

Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

Bitcoin Cash BCH holds an important place in the history of altcoins because it is one of the earliest and most successful hard forks of the original Bitcoin. BCH began its life in August 2017 as a result of one of these splits. The debate that led to the creation of BCH had to do with the issue of scalability; the Bitcoin network has a limit on the size of blocks: 1 megabyte (MB). BCH increases the block size from 1MB to 8MBs, with the idea being that larger blocks can hold more transactions within them, and the transaction speed would therefore increase.18 It also makes other changes, including the removal of the Segregated Witness protocol that impacts block space.

 

Stellar (XLM)

Stellar (XLM) is an open blockchain network designed to provide enterprise solutions by connecting financial institutions for the purpose of large transactions. Huge transactions between banks and investment firms typically take several days, involve a number of intermediaries, and cost a good deal of money that can now be made nearly instantaneously with no intermediaries and cost little to nothing for those making the transaction. Though Stellar has positioned itself as an enterprise blockchain for institutional transactions, it is still an open blockchain that anyone can use. 

 

Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin (DOGE), seen by some as the original “meme coin,” caused a stir in 2021 as the price of the coin skyrocketed. The coin, which uses an image of the Shiba Inu as its avatar, is accepted as a form of payment by some major companies, including the Dallas Mavericks, Kronos, and perhaps most notably SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer owned by Elon Musk.

 

Binance Coin (BNB)

Binance Coin (BNB) is a utility cryptocurrency that operates as a payment method for the fees associated with trading on the Binance Exchange. It is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.24 Those who use the token as a means of payment for the exchange can trade at a discount.

 

Tether (USDT)

Tether (USDT) was one of the first and most popular of a group of so-called stablecoins—cryptocurrencies that aim to peg their market value to a currency or other external reference point to reduce volatility. Because most digital currencies, even major ones like Bitcoin, have experienced frequent periods of dramatic volatility, Tether and other stablecoins attempt to smooth out price fluctuations to attract users who may otherwise be cautious.

 

Monero (XMR)

Monero has launched with a strong focus on decentralization and scalability, and it enables complete privacy by using a special technique called “ring signatures.” With this technique, a group of cryptographic signatures appears, including at least one real participant, but the real one cannot be isolated because they all appear valid. Because of these exceptional security mechanisms, Monero has developed something of an unsavory reputation—it has been linked to criminal operations around the world. 

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Three days after the announcement of the Union Budget 2022, tax services and fintech startup, Clear, formerly known as ClearTax, launched a crypto tax platform to track and manage portfolios across exchanges and wallets. The app will keep record of income generating from transfer of virtual digital assets such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs, according to Yourstory.com.  

Meanwhile, in the cryptocurrency market, the price of Bitcoin was up by 3.97 per cent and was trading at $37,967.67 at 6:30 pm, while its dominance in the crypto market is currently at 40.80 per cent, down by 0.38 per cent in the last 24 hours.    

Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $2,837.92, with a rise of 8.66 per cent in the last 24 hours, while Binance Coin (BNB) was up by 3.62 per cent over the same period and was trading at $377.78. Solana (SOL) up by 7.04 per cent to $104.17 and Cardano (ADA) was up by 3.08 per cent to $1.06.  

Meme Coins  

Co-founder of meme coin, Dogecoin Billy Markus, appealed to supporters to “stay cool” amid the cryptocurrency failing to gain any significant traction since January 2022. Meanwhile, all major meme coins such as Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogelon Mars (ELON), and Samoyedcoin (SAMO) have shown a rise in the last 24 hours.   

Dogecoin was up by 2.40 per cent while trading at $0.1397 at 6:30 pm. Rival Shiba Inu was up by 3.18 per cent and was trading at $0.00002113, Dogelon Mars up by 9.69 per cent and was trading at $0.0000008505, while Samoyedcoin was trading at $0.02086 and recorded a rise of 2.16 per cent.    

Overall Scenario    

The global crypto market cap was at $1.76 trillion, registering an increase of 5.06 per cent in the last 24 hours, while the total crypto market volume was $67.61 billion, down by 10.27 per cent.   

MetaPay (METAPAY) became the biggest gainer, recording a rise of 531.30 per cent, it was trading at $0.000002021 at 6:30 pm. On the other hand, Vive La Bouje (VIVE) witnessed maximum loss, falling 92.83 per cent, it was trading at $31.66. 

Latest Update 

Myanmar’s military government plans to establish a digital currency to support domestic payments and boost the economy within the year and is assessing how to move forward, Bloomberg quoted a top spokesman of the State Administration Council. 

Diwali, the five-day Indian festival of lights, has arrived, with the most important occasion of “Lakshmi Pujan” – worship of the goddess of wealth and prosperity – falling on Nov. 4. The auspicious day is considered the best time to invest in financial assets and has scores of people purchasing gold and stocks each year.

This time, Indians also appear to be flocking to meme cryptocurrency shiba inu (SHIB), whose current market capitalization of $39.13 billion is bigger than the market value of Indian fast-moving consumer goods giant ITC, auto sector heavyweight Maruti Suzuki and one of the country’s top lenders Axis Bank. According to local observers, the lure of making big money on a relatively small investment is drawing investors from all walks of life to SHIB.

“The SHIB FOMO [fear-of-missing-out] is absolutely real,” said Keshav Aggarwal, a crypto investor and founder of Bitcoin Investor Group, a premium WhatsApp group for crypto traders, exchanges, and crypto project founders. “SHIB is the cheapest and the most hyped (marketed) coin available on Indian exchanges.”

At press time, SHIB was changing hands at rupee (₹) 0.005624 ($0.00007026) on Binance-owned Mumbai-based WazirX exchange. Meanwhile, its rival dogecoin was trading at ₹21 ($0.28) and bitcoin was priced at ₹4,871,529 ($65205).

According to International Monetary Fund estimates, India’s per capita income or the amount of money earned per person in inflation-adjusted terms during 2020-21 is ₹86,659,($1160), or 1.77% of bitcoin’s going price. So, it’s no surprise that SHIB, with its much cheaper valuation, is drawing strong demand in the festive season.

“The motivation to buy SHIB is to earn good profit in a short time,” Dharmesh Barot, a SHIB investor and a real estate professional, told Coindesk. “Yes, it’s cheap money too, easy to bet on.”

SHIB, an ERC-20 token created by an unknown person named Ryoshi in August 2020, has chalked up a near ten-fold rally in the past four weeks, outperforming bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies by a big margin. Last week, the cryptocurrency briefly replaced its rival dogecoin as the ninth largest digital asset. The team behind SHIB has also launched decentralized exchange ShibaSwap, which allows users to stake coins.

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According to Defi Llama, the total value locked in ShibaSwap has doubled to over $500 million in the past four weeks.

The sentiment is quite bullish in the retail crowd, as evidenced by the recent comments in Aggarwal’s WhatsApp group. “DOGE, SHIB ki behen, chacha, fufa koi nikla hai to batao, pura khaandan kharid lenge [let us know if SHIB, DOGE’s sister, uncle, have been launched, we will buy entire family],” one member jokingly said in Hindi, revealing his/her bullish bias on meme coins.

Members of a Telegram-based Shiba Inu India (Official) group have planned a community buying effort at 6:30 PM UTC on Nov. 3 – a day before Lakshmi Pujan. “We can all do this,” said a group member.

“The major motivation is always the money for people,” Rajat Lalwani, Community Admin & Moderator, Growth Breed at SHIB India, told Coindesk in a Telegram chat. “The price is relatively cheap than a lot of coins, and people feel if the zeros keep getting eaten, then they can make 10x, 100x or even 1000x on their investment long term.”

Peak retail interest

Google Trends currently shows a value of 100 for the India search query “SHIB” over the past 12 months – a sign of peak retail interest mostly seen at market tops.

“Cheap price has been the biggest factor, and to see $100 becoming $1000 in no time is driving madness,” Siddharth Menon, co-founder of WazirX, said. “We had seen this with DOGE in 2017, where memes became life-changing for some. I missed out on that hype back then too.” The exchange published a blog post on Nov. 1 explaining how to buy SHIB in India.

Some investors have been drawn to SHIB by dogecoin’s meteoric 15-fold rise to ₹58 in April-May. “The motivation to buy SHIB came when DOGE coin made an immense amount of money and SHIB was coming into the limelight and was being referred to as the DOGE killer. It was then I thought of investing into it,” said Gurpeet Singh, an audio engineer from the Indian state of Punjab.

There is more to it than low price

According to Lalwani, demand for SHIB stems from the community’s active approach in dealing with the excess supply situation.

“In May, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin burned 45% of SHIB’s supply to a dead wallet. That started a cult-like revolution of burning tokens to increase the price by decreasing supply,” Lalwani said. “Buterin burned a total of 405 trillion, and the community has burnt close to 6 trillion already.”

Buterin had been given half of SHIB’s total supply in May in a supposed marketing stunt. Coin burn refers to the process of removing tokens from circulation and is the crypto market’s equivalent of a stock buyback.

“I am holding a good quantity of SHIB, more than 200 million, and I am looking to add more in Diwali while the price is ranging,” said Jiren Singh, a 36-year old accounts professional and a member of Shina Inu India (Official) Telegram group said. “Cheap price is indeed a reason, but my primary motivation is its strong community base and token burns.”

A petition at Change.Org urging Shiba Inu to develop a policy to burn a significant amount of the token supply is gaining traction, garnering over 13,000 votes in less than 24 hours.

“The Shiba Inu pricing is aiming for the $1, but when it will reach that threshold exactly is anybody’s guess,” the petition says. “Developing a policy that could burn some Shib’s circulating supply will let Shiba Reduce for example this ten year period to five years.”

Currently, there are 549 trillion SHIB in existence , according to data provided by CoinGecko. That number is significantly higher than bitcoin’s circulating supply of 18.85 million. Assuming the petition is approved, there would still be plenty SHIB in the market relative to other cryptocurrencies, limiting its price prospects. However, Indian investors think otherwise.

“Circulating Supply of SHIB is very less for 1.30 billion Indian SHIB army,” one SHIB fan tweeted.

Mumbai: Vinod Kumar, 36, a Bengaluru-based investment banker at a private equity firm, has seen his “risk portfolio” investment in Shiba Inu coin jump four times in the past two days.

Kumar had invested twice in the meme crypto coin – once when it was priced at ₹0.001215 and then when it was at ₹0.002039 a few weeks ago. After the spurt in the last two days, Shiba Inu was trading at around ₹0.005848 Saturday on some crypto exchanges.

Many investors, globally and in India, have seen their risk portfolios rise, riding on the meme coin – a type of cryptocurrency – that jumped 70% on Wednesday and 40% on Thursday, said exchanges.

“We have seen around 35,000 users buying Shiba Inu recently, which accounts for a 385% increase in Shiba Inu investors. Also, the Shiba Inu INR markets saw 5x increase in exchange volume,” said Shivam Thakral, chief executive at cryptocurrency exchange BuyUcoin. BuyUcoin users have invested $58 million in Shiba Inu since the beginning of the current rally.

In all, trading volumes were pegged at about $600 million across platforms in India, said industry trackers.

Top exchanges told ET that, unlike earlier, when Indians would only start buying when global rallies were coming to an end, many continued buying the cryptocurrency all through September and October. Meme coins are typically inspired by jokes on social media as was the case with Dogecoin. Now Shiba Inu has become one of the most popular crypto assets globally.

“Meme coins and altcoins could gain investors’ interest if they continue to deliver handsome returns,” said Jay Hao, CEO, OKEx.com, a cryptocurrency exchange.

8th Largest Cryptocurrency

“At the same time, users should be very careful while investing in such cryptos and not put all their eggs in one basket and always diversify their portfolio across multiple crypto assets,” he said. “Shiba Inu, owing to the recent rally, has become the eighth-largest crypto in the world by market cap. At OKEx, we have seen a 5x increase in Shiba Inu trading since the beginning of the price surge.”

Top exchanges said that Indians continued to buy Shiba Inu on Friday.

Data from the exchanges indicate that most of the investors who made money, like Kumar, haven’t liquidated their investments but are putting in more money, hoping for further highs.

“I am going to hold the positions long term,” said Kumar, who did not tell ET the total value of his “risk portfolio” after the jump in the meme coin.

With Bitcoin, Etherum, Solana and Cardano exhibiting volatility and demand for Shiba Inu increasing on Wednesday, WazirX’s services were disrupted for a while on Thursday amid a flood of orders. The exchange said trading volume touched a record $566 million.

There are close to 15 million crypto investors in India, holding digital assets worth ₹15,000 crore, according to figures compiled by Indian cryptocurrency exchanges. All the large cryptocurrency exchanges have seen at least a doubling in trading and investment in the past few months.