The 15 Cryptocurrency Exchanges In India That Are Bringing Bitcoin & Ethereum To Mainstream

With its price surging exponentially, Bitcoin’s comparison with Gold is outdated. Bitcoin is limited, so is ‘Margarita, the Benjamin’ with a composition of a special Cuvee of Grand Marnier, finished with Louis XIII Cognac. As demand is catching up, the nine-year-old Bitcoin is already priced on par with 42-year-aged Glenfiddich single malt scotch, and will perhaps surpass a bottle of 50-year-aged scotch too, which is trading at $32K at the whiskey exchanges across the world. However, in India, like whiskey exchanges that are few and far between (trading aged single malt scotch), there are limited cryptocurrency exchanges that are reliable, regulated and that enable trading in Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.

In India, as the Bitcoin fever is catching up with over 2,500 users trading Bitcoin daily and the trading volume rising close to $20 Bn a year, cryptocurrency exchanges are mushrooming with each passing day.

In the world of cryptocurrencies, hard-fork is a common phenomenon. However, for a hard-forked coin’s valuation, it is important to have the backing of some independent exchanges that could benchmark their values.

Amid 1315 cryptocurrencies along with crypto tokens available for the trading at various cryptocurrency exchanges, it is crucial to check whether the exchanges trading these cryptocurrencies are regulated or not. In India, while mcap tokens and Onecoins received a bit of controversy, globally, more than 50 cryptocurrency exchanges have been shut down owing to the hacking, chaos and government policies.

In India, while the government policy regarding cryptocurrencies is the new ‘Birbil Ki Khhichdi’, still in the cooking mode, a majority of the Indian cryptocurrency exchanges have already adopted the KYC way to minimise the trading risks. The Indian cryptocurrency exchanges have also formed a foundation called Digital Asset and Blockchain Foundation of India (DABFI) which decides the exchanges’ stand on various issues such as hard-forks. Leading from the front, Bitcoin has captured a major chunk of market shares, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash are slowly making their way into the Indian cryptocurrency market.

Added to that, India is soon going to have its own digital cryptocurrency, Laxmicoin. Founded by Raj Dangi and Mitts Daki, Laxmi Coin was scheduled to be India’s first digital cryptocurrency, back in 2013. However, after RBI press release over the cryptocurrencies in 2013, the launch was suspended. The startup will be officially launched in 2018 now, and the ICO will start on March 31, 2018.

As many cryptocurrency enthusiasts looking forward to investing in Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, however, are unaware of the various cryptocurrency exchanges, their trading fee and other details; the article efforts to enlist the current active cryptocurrency exchanges across India. Readers are suggested to check the pricing index policy and exchange regulatory parameters while investing in Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies. This is important, as pricing varies as per the indexing policies; some exchanges do follow local demand-supply curve while some, global index.

The Bitcoin, Ethereum Era: A List Of Cryptocurrency Exchanges In India

Please note that the order is arbitrary. The information has been collected from press statements, publically available resources and websites.

 

Unocoin

• Launched In: 2013
• Based Out Of: Bengaluru
• Founders: Abhinand Kaseti, Harish B V, Sathvik Vishwanath and Sunny Ray
• Funding Details: Raised $1.75 Mn till date: $250K in Seed funding and $1.5 Mn in Pre-Series A funding led by Digital Currency Group in 2016
• Key Stats: Over 500K downloads, as of November 13, 2017
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin
• Transaction Fee: 0.7% to 1%
• Avg. Registration Time: 24-48 hours

Founded by Abhinand Kaseti, Harish B V, Sathvik Vishwanath and Sunny Ray in December 2013, Bitcoin wallet Unocoin has registered over 500K downloads so far. Based in Bengaluru, Unocoin has partnered with US-based Bitwage and Canada-based Paycase, in a bid to widen its global user base. Recently, Unocoin has also entered into a strategic partnership with the US-based software platform for the digital currency, Blockchain. The partnership will allow seamless integration of the Unocoin wallets with Blockchain wallets where Indian users can fund their Blockchain wallets through Unocoin.

Within the four-year span, Unocoin has also introduced some new features such as the Bitcoin Systematic Buying Plan (SBP), Bitcoin Point of Sale (POS) App and Bitcoin Over-The-Counter trading (OTC).

The company has successfully raised close to $2 Mn funding so far. Seed-funded with $250K, Unocoin raised $1.5 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding led by Digital Currency Group in 2016. The other investors who participated in the round were Founders Club, Boost VC, ah! Ventures, Bnk To The Future, Mumbai Angels and Blume Ventures.

According to the company statement, on April 7, 2016, the Unocoin business was transferred to Unocoin Technologies Pvt Ltd which is a fully owned subsidiary of a holding company in Singapore named Unocoin Technologies Pte Ltd.

Belfrics 

• Launched In: 2014
• Based Out Of: Bengaluru/Kualalumpur
• Founders: Praveen Kumar
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin
• Transaction Fee: 1%
• Registration Time: Instant

Belfrics claims to aggregate the feeds of multiple cryptocurrency exchanges to deliver a deep pool of liquidity for effective trade execution. The company provides solutions for buying and selling of Bitcoins, Points-of-scales (POS) solutions, Bitcoin web payment gateway and mobile credit cards.

Bitxoxo 

• Launched In: 2016
• Based Out Of: Warangal
• Founders: Hesham Rehman and Mohammed Rezwan
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Ripple
• Transaction Fee: No extra charge, claims the company
• Registration Time: Instant

Warangal-based exchange wallet Bitxoxo was founded by Hesham Rehman and Mohammad Rezwan in 2016. The platform allows Bitcoin traders to buy, sell and gift Bitcoins. As per the company, it doesn’t charge any fee for these services. Bitxoxo also allows payments and withdrawals through IMPS.

The company plans to add other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Ripple as well. The exchange is yet to launch its iOS/Android apps.

BTCXIndia

• Launched In: 2013
• Based Out Of: Hyderabad
• Founders: Mupparaju Siva Kameswara Rao
• Key Stats: Less Than 5K downloads, as of October 27, 2017
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum
• Transaction Fee: 1%
• Registration Time: Within Hours

Founded by Mupparaju Siva Kameswara Rao in 2013, BTCXIndia is managed by Hyderabad-based S Capital Solutions Pvt. Ltd. The platform allows users to trade in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple. The exchange had to shut down its operations on May 8, 2015, after Kotak-Mahindra bank pulled the plug on it. However, the exchange resumed operations on July 5, 2017, after moving to Andhra bank.

The company also operates ETHEXIndia which offers ETH Wallet system enabling real-time trade between ETH and INR. Its Android app has little under 5K downloads.

BuyUCoin

• Launched In: 2016
• Based Out Of: Delhi
• Founders: Atulya Bhatt, Devesh Aggrawal and Shivam Thakral
• Key Stats: 15K users, according to their website
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Dash, Monero, Z-Cash, Factom, Lisk, Ethereum Classic, NEO and popular crypto-tokens like Golem, Augur
• Transaction Fee: No extra fee, claims the company
• Registration Time: 1-24 hour

Founded by Atulya Bhatt, Devesh Aggrawal and Shivam Thakral in July 2016, Delhi-based BuyUCoin is registered as iBlock Technologies Private Limited. The exchange offers multi-cryptocurrency trading features. The platform accepts cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Dash, Monero, Z-Cash, Factom, Lisk, Ethereum Classic, NEO and popular crypto-tokens like Golem, Augur, Stratis in India.

The exchange claims to have more than 15K users.

Zebpay

• Launched In: 2015
• Based Out Of: Singapore
• Founders: Mahin Gupta, Sandeep Goenka, Saurabh Agrawal
• Funding Details: Raised $1.12 Mn to date: $125K in Seed funding and $1 Mn in a follow-on round from Arjun Handa, Nagendra Chaudhary and Amit Jindal in 2016
• Key Stats: Over 1 Mn downloads, as of November 10, 2017
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin
• Transaction Fee: INR 10 fee on all INR withdrawals. Bitcoin transfer to other users carries a Bitcoin network fee which is usually 0.0001 BTC
• Avg. Registration Time: Few hours normally

Founded by Mahin Gupta, Sandeep Goenka and Saurabh Agrawal in 2015, the Singapore-headquartered and Ahmedabad-based Zebpay is one of India’s leading exchange for Bitcoin trading. The app-enabled exchange has its IT offices in Ahmedabad and Mumbai. With over 1 Mn downloads, the exchange claims to command over 60% of the Bitcoin trade in India.

It received the best new Bitcoin company award at CoinAgenda Conference, Las Vegas in 2014. Coming to the story of its inception, Manik Gupta, one of the cofounders had set up a Bitcoin exchange called Buysellbitco.in in early 2012. However, in 2015, the exchange was re-established as Zebpay with two more founding partners – Sandeep Goenka and Saurabh Agrawal.

Seed-funded with $125K, Zebpay had successfully raised $1 Mn in Series A funding round led by investor Arjun Handa in 2016. The other investors who participated in the round were Nagendra Chaudhary and Amit Jindal. The company has reportedly been in talks with US-based investors to raise another $4 Mn-$5 Mn in Series B funding round.

 

Coinsecure

• Launched In: 2014
• Based Out Of: Delhi
• Founders: Benson Samuel and Mohit Kalra
• Funding Details: Has raised $1.2 Mn till date
• Key Stats: Over 10K downloads, as of November 13, 2017
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin
• Transaction Fee: 0.3%
• Registration Time: 48 hours

Founded by Benson Samuel and Mohit Kalra in 2014, Delhi-based Coinsecure is an Indian real-time Bitcoin trading platform. The exchange enables the trading process through deposits and withdrawals of Bitcoins and Indian rupees.

Registered as Secure Bitcoin Traders Pvt. Ltd, Coinsecure offers Bitcoin wallet, exchange, trading and merchant services along with other Blockchain based services. The company has its head office in Delhi and an R&D division in Bengaluru.

The company launched a Bitcoin exchange on January 1, 2015. The platform offers users access to an algorithmic trading Bitcoin exchange, a Blockchain explorer, free APIs for all their products, a mock trading platform where customers can try trading without real money as well as on-chain and off-chain wallet services. As of May 2017, the company was consistently handling over 3,000 BTCs a month in terms of volume.

The exchange wallet has noted 10K-50K downloads so far and has raised $1.2 Mn in funding till date.

Coindelta

• Launched In: 2017
• Based Out Of: Pune
• Founders: Rajdeep Singh, Shubham Yadav and Manish K
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Omisego etc.
• Transaction Fee: 0.3%
• Registration Time: Instant

Founded by Rajdeep Singh, Shubham Yadav and Manish K in 2017, Pune-based Coindelta is a cryptocurrency exchange offering markets in BTC and INR for trading. The platform enables its users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, OmiseGO, Qtum and more. With no deposit fee, Coindelta is based on a maker-taker model with trading fee as low as 0%.

A maker is a party whose order exists in the order book before the trade occurs, while a taker is a party who places an order that matches the maker’s order. Makers are incentivised because their orders provide liquidity in the market and takers are the ones who remove this liquidity by taking makers’ orders with their own.

The exchange also offers 24/7 customer care support.

CoinSwitch

• Launched In: 2017
• Based Out Of: Bengaluru
• Founders: Ashish Singhal, Govind Soni, and Vimal Sagar Tiwari
• Cryptocurrency Offered: More than 100 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash
• Transaction Fee: Depends on the exchange a user select for the transaction
• Avg. Registration Time: Not Required

Unlike other digital asset and bitcoin exchanges, one doesn’t need an account to use CoinSwitch. The exchange offers the conversion of one cryptocurrency to another. It is a cryptocurrency exchange, claims to provide the best exchange rate on transactions by aggregating all leading exchanges and comparing their rates in real time. One just needs to choose the altcoins or blockchain tokens one would like to exchange, input the receiving address and send funds.

FlitPay

• Launched In: 2017
• Based Out Of: Jaipur
• Founders: Ashish Sangai and Akash Bansal
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin
• Transaction Fee: No transaction fee, claims the company
• Avg. Registration Time: WIthin 24 hours

Founded by Ashish Sangai and Akash Bansal this year, Jaipur-based Flitpay is a Bitcoin marketplace. The exchange app currently has less than 5K downloads on Google Play.

Koinex 

• Launched In: 2017
• Based Out Of: Mumbai
• Founders: Rakesh Yadav, Rahul Raj and Aditya Nayak
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash
• Transaction Fee: 0.2-0.25%
• Avg. Registration Time: 4-5 hours

Founded by Rakesh Yadav, Rahul Raj and Aditya Nayak in August 2017, Mumbai-based Koinex is a multi-digital assets exchange.The multi-cryptocurrency platform offers trading of Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash.

PocketBits

• Launched In: 2016
• Based Out Of: Nasik
• Founders: Sohail Merchant
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin, Ethereum
• Transaction Fee: No Fee
• Avg. Registration Time: Instant
• PocketBits offers Bitcoin trading services to institutions and trading professionals.

Operated by Defacto Technologies, PocketBits is a digital currency wallet and platform where merchants and consumers can transact with new digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ether.

ThroughBit

• Launched In: 2016
• Based Out Of: Bengaluru
• Founders: Abhishek Gopal, Mohammed Roshan and Anandprabu Rajendran
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin, Ethereum and Falcon
• Transaction Fee: ~0.9%
• Avg. Registration Time: 1 hour

The Bengaluru-based multi-cryptocurrency exchange was launched in 2016. Founded by Abhishek Gopal, Mohammed Roshan and Anandprabu Rajendran, ThroughBit offers buy-sell facilities of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoins, Ethereum and Falcon. Here, it is worth noting that Falcon is a centralised smart contract/cryptocurrency pegged to Indian fiat currency value i.e. 1 INRF will always be equal to INR1. At present, INRFalcon can’t be sold anywhere else, except on ThroughBit. The INRF has been introduced to minimise the banking transactions.

Currently, the exchange does not offer the app-enabled trading facility.

Coinome

• Launched In: 2017
• Based Out Of: Mumbai
• Founders: A Subsidiary of Billdesk
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash
• Transaction Fee: 0.1% and 0.3% for Makers and Takers respectively
• Avg. Registration Time: Instant

Headquartered in Mumbai, Coinome allows users to be onboarded via an instant e-KYC process. Under the process, a user needs to register his/her Aadhaar number, post which an OTP is sent for the verification and activation of the account. With Billdesk being the promoter of the exchange, Coinome will have an easy window to build trust and deal with cybersecurity threats, which are currently the key concerns of cryptocurrency exchanges across the world.

Coinbase is an open order book cryptocurrency exchange. Similar to conventional stock exchanges, the platform enables deals between buyers and sellers.

REDIPAY

• Launched In: 2017
• Based Out Of: Delhi
• Founders: A Subsidiary of Indiweb Holdings
• Cryptocurrency Offered: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum
• Transaction Fee: 0.5% to 5%
• Avg. Registration Time: Instant (E-KYC)

Delhi-based REDIPAY aims to connect cryptocurrency traders and investors from the US and India. Launched as a cryptocurrency brokerage for Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin; REDIPAY is now offering Ethereum too. This will be followed by simultaneous launches of live order books for other poplar cryptocurrencies such as BCH, XRP, Ethereum Classic, Dash and other cryptocurrencies over the course of 2018, claims the company.

Except a few, most of these cryptocurrency exchanges have been set up in 2016-2017, marking the soaring popularity of Bitcoins in India in the last couple of years. While many of these cryptocurrency exchanges have not attracted Seed/Series funding yet, it has been a subject of great debate at Bitcoin forums whether VCs and exchanges manage to raise profits of the same scale as Bitcoin trading. Once the futures are up on the listing at exchanges, probably the scenario might change for exchanges too!

[If you know any other Cryptocurrency exchange startups that must be included in this list, send us an email at [email protected]]