In 2008-09, when the world was in the grip of a financial crisis, an anonymous online entity named Satoshi Nakamoto developed Bitcoin—a peer-to-peer, unregulated alternative to the regulated but crisis-hit banking system.
More than a decade since, the cryptocurrency ecosystem has grown by leaps and bounds globally. In India, it remains an unregulated asset, but that has not deterred Indians from investing in it in a big way. According to a recent report by the trade website BrokerChooser, India had 10.07 crore crypto owners— more than any other country in the world. The US has 2.74 crore and Russia, 1.74 crore.
Crypto popularity in India exploded in March 2020, right after the Supreme Court lifted the Reserve Bank of India’s ban on cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin price jumped from $6,484 to more than $47,000 now, according to the research platform Statista. Earlier this year, prices hit a record high of $61,000. The price boom has been driving interest among millennials, say experts.
But there are many pioneers in India who were early adopters of cryptocurrency. They saw a bright future in crypto long before others did. Some of them started investing several years ago; some have even gone all in.
Harshad Gawde of Mumbai is one such pioneer. An app and website developer, Gawde is both an investor and crypto miner. Mining is, essentially, a process of minting new crypto coins. He has been a miner since 2014.
There are three types of traders—scalpers, swing traders and long-term holders. I do scalping, which basically means that I enter with very big positions and exit in 15 to 20 minutes. —Akshay Haldipur, digital marketing expert and crypto investor
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