One of the major fall-outs of RBI’s April-5 circular has been the cease of rupee deposit and withdrawal on the country’s biggest digital exchange platform. Zebpay, shortly after urging its users to withdraw money on July 4, issued a statement saying, “we are disabling the rupee deposit and withdrawal options owing to the bank account closures as per the RBI guideline.”
RBI’s announcement has also led to numerous banks withdrawing their support from most of the top exchanges of the country resulting in the cease of trade on Zebpay, Unicoin, and Koinex.
This has sent a wave of fury, frustration, and confusion among the Indian crypto enthusiasts. Continuously, people are looking for alternate ways or platforms through which they can continue trading in crypto.
But it is not the end of crypto trading in India—not just yet. Indian crypto enthusiasts still have the option of purchasing crypto currency from the following p2p trading platforms:
Local Bitcoins
A bitcoin-start-up company in Finland, Local Bitcoins facilitates over-the-counter trading of local currency for bitcoins. It is p2p trading exchange supporting every payment method and allows people from varying countries to purchase bitcoin for their local currency. In India, this company has operations in all major cities including New Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Surat, Chennai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Pune, Guwahati, and several more.
How-to
Once logged-in, the users on the home page can enter the amount of crypto they would like to purchase/sell (under the Qucik Buy/Sell options) and choose the country and the preferred payment method.
On pressing Search, a list of advertisement traders along with their username, number of completed trades, and trade-feedback score. The payment method of each advertisement is also specified in the next column followed by the price/BTC and the limits column which shows the price of one BTC and the largest and smallest unit of BTC you can buy respectively.
For detailed information of the trade, the user can press the Buy It is advised that you check whether the amount is correct.
The next step is to press the Send Trade Request button.
The trades are escrow-protected and the peers have an option to ‘chat’ with each other. The payment window has a time running and it is imperative that you pay before that time runs out failing which the trade will be cancelled and users can lose their money.
The user should Mark Payment Complete which stops the trade from being cancelled automatically.
Once your payment has been received and a confirmation is given, the escrow deposits the coin into your Local Bitcoins wallet.
WazirX
Another p2p trading platform, WazirX is on its way to become India’s most-trusted bitcoin exchange. The exchange allows you to buy, trade, and sell Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and many other crypto currencies in India. The exchange also has its native token WRX. The exchange is built on KYC, has mobile apps for android and iOS, and claims to provide multiple hundred transactions per second.
Towards the end of June, the exchange enabled NRIs and people without Aadhar Card to begin crypto trading on their platform.
How-to
WazirX connects a buyer and seller while acting like an escrow account.
The seller is required to deposit the crypto with the exchange which is escrowed by the exchange during the transaction.
When the buyer makes the payment in INR, the exchange releases the crypto on getting a confirmation from the seller.
InstaShift
InstaShift allows users to buy and/or sell crypto currency in a novel multi-party p2p model in an over-the-counter experience. The exchange provides the option of selling crypto in escrow and requires every buyer to have an existing wallet—which would not be a problem for crypto enthusiasts. The users can also receive money directly in their bank accounts and their crypto in InstaShift accounts.
How-to
On the homepage of the website, the users will find a Buy option under which they are required to enter the amount of coins they want to purchase and an equivalent fiat amount they’ll have to pay.
To place the order, the buyers have to go through a mobile number verification.
When the order is placed, the exchange looks for a matching seller.
Once matched sellers have been identified, a timer runs on the screen under which the buyer has to transfer the fiat amount to the seller account.
On completing the transaction, the buyer selects the I Have Paid After the seller confirms the payment, the crypto is transferred to the buyer’s account. In case the confirmation is delayed, or not received, buyers can raise a dispute with the exchange.
The process of selling bitcoin is fairly similar.