Dear readers,

Crypto trading in India has hit several hurdles since the beginning of this fiscal year in April 2022. The latest WazirX<>Binance spat has left crypto traders in India worried about what other options do they have to trade crypto should they choose to abandon both WazirX and Binance?

In today’s letter we will explore:

• Operational exchanges that support Indian Users.

• Scoring the exchanges based on their features like INR/Crypto Deposit and Withdrawal and tax compliance.

• Conclusion - Identifying the choice of exchanges based on features.

But, before we begin. I humbly request you to subscribe to this newsletter and join close to 500 others who receive a letter every weekday in their inbox. It is free for a limited time.

Popular Crypto Exchanges for Indian Users

My articles on which Indian exchanges are supporting INR Deposits and Withdrawals have been the best-performing content on Coin Crunch. I have no doubt, that this letter will help a lot of people who are unaware or unsure about which mediums to use for Crypto trading if you are an Indian resident.

Here is the list of exchanges that allow Indian users to buy and sell crypto assets with INR. The list includes Spot Exchanges and Peer to Peer exchanges.

Fiat-based Spot Crypto exchanges in India:

• Bitbns

• BuyUcoin

• CoinDCX

• CoinSwitch Kuber

• Colodax

• Giottus

• Pocketbits

• Unocoin

• WazirX

• ZebPay

Peer-to-Peer exchanges supporting INR in India:

• Binance

• Bitbns

• Huobi

• Kucoin

• LocalBitcoins

• LocalCryptos

• OKX

• Paxful

• WazirX

For the sake of simplicity, we will review each exchange in alphabetical order and we will judge the spot exchanges and P2P exchanges separately.

Each exchange will be judged for several features on its platform, each feature gets one of the three scores: (-1), Zero (0) or (+1).

• (-1): Awarded when a feature is not available on the exchange but is available on many other exchanges. Example: If 5 out of 7 exchanges allow Crypto Withdrawals. The two platforms that do not offer the feature get (-1).

• Zero (0): Awarded for a missing feature that may or may not be available in a few other exchanges.

• +1: Awarded for each available feature irrespective of its availability on other platforms.

Caveat: A zero can be awarded for a feature that may be available but is not servicing the same way as other platforms.

Fiat-based Spot Crypto Exchanges in India:

These exchanges offer services to Indian users and operate as Indian exchanges with INR to crypto markets. Each exchange will be judged for the following features - INR Deposits/Withdrawals, Crypto Deposits/Withdrawals, TDS compliance and one X factor of the exchange.

Originally I included parity with global prices as a metric too, but almost all these exchanges have a huge spread or thin order books thereby none being better than another in this aspect.

Here's a cheat sheet, if you do not feel like reading the whole thing.

Bitbns Spot Exchange

Bitbns crypto exchange was founded by Gaurav Dahake, Prashant Singh and Srikanth Sethumadhavan in late 2017. Today Bitbns offers several tokens for trading against INR and USDT. Additionally, the exchange also offers Margin trading, Derivatives, DeFi Yield farming, a systematic investment platform and a launchpad for Crypto products.

However, our assessment is strictly limited to the exchange’s features for INR-based trading.

1. Crypto to INR trading: Yes (+1)

2. Crypto Deposits: Yes (+1)

3. Crypto Withdrawals: Operational (+1)

4. INR Deposits: Available with UPI and Bank transfers (+1)

5. INR Withdrawals: Available but may take up to a month for withdrawals (0)

6. TDS Compliance: Compliant (+1)

7. X-Factor of the exchange: Very high number of tokens for trading plus deposits and withdrawals of crypto on multiple networks like ETH, Polygon, BSC and Tron.

8. Parity with market prices: Bitbns has higher crypto prices than other exchanges as the INR withdrawals are delayed.

Total Score: 5 Points.

You can sign up on Bitbns by clicking here.

BuyUcoin Crypto Exchange

BuyUcoin is one of the oldest crypto exchanges in India founded by Shivam Thakral. The exchange has gone through several iterations along the way offering services for Indian customers.

1. Crypto to INR trading: Markets under maintenance (-1)

2. Crypto Deposits: Yes (+1)

3. Crypto Withdrawals: Under maintenance (-1)

4. INR Deposits: Available with UPI and Bank transfers (+1)

5. INR Withdrawals: Available (+1)

6. TDS Compliance: Under Maintenance (-1)

7. X Factor of the exchange: Not applicable. Markets are under maintenance so cannot test.

Total Score: 0 Points.

CoinDCX Spot Exchange

India’s first crypto unicorn, CoinDCX was founded in 2018 by Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal. CoinDCX was the first Indian exchange to officially build on top of Binance and other exchange markets providing high liquidity to Indian customers. CoinDCX offers Derivates trading via BitMex exchange and margin trading facility as well.

1. Crypto to INR trading: Yes (+1)

2. Crypto Deposits: Under maintenance (-1)

3. Crypto Withdrawals: Under maintenance (-1)

4. INR Deposits: Net Banking (+1)

5. INR Withdrawals: Available (+1)

6. TDS Compliance: Compliant (+1)

7. X-Factor of the exchange: Quick Buy facility that allows users to buy large quantities of crypto at a single price. Users can also earn interest by lending or staking their crypto assets.

Total Score: 3 Points.

You can sign up on CoinDCX by clicking here.

CoinSwitch Kuber Exchange

The second Indian platform to become a unicorn Coinswitch was originally a crypto exchange aggregator launched in 2017 by Vimal Sagar Tiwari and Ashish Singhal. The platform pivoted to focus on the Indian market with the launch of Kuber, an app-based crypto exchange later converted to a platform with several other features in the pipeline.

However, our assessment is strictly limited to the exchange’s features for INR-based trading.

1. Crypto to INR trading: Yes (+1)

2. Crypto Deposits: Unavailable (-1)

3. Crypto Withdrawals: Unavailable (-1)

4. INR Deposits: Net Banking (+1)

5. INR Withdrawals: Available (+1)

6. TDS Compliance: Compliant (+1)

7. X-Factor of the exchange: Quick Buy facility that allows users to buy large quantities of crypto at a single price. INR deposits and withdrawals are faster.

Total Score: 3 Points.

You can sign up and earn 50 INR in BTC on CoinSwitch Kuber by clicking here.

Colodax Crypto Exchange

One of the least known Crypto exchanges in the Indian Crypto ecosystem is Colodax. It was founded in 2017, Nitesh Agarwal is the CEO of the company. The exchange offers a small number of tokens for trade.

1. Crypto to INR trading: Yes (+1)

2. Crypto Deposits: Yes (+1)

3. Crypto Withdrawals: Yes (+1)

4. INR Deposits: Available (+1)

5. INR Withdrawals: Available (+1)

6. TDS Compliance: Compliant (+1)

7. X-Factor of the exchange: Instant Buy facility that allows users to buy large quantities of crypto at a single price is available for a few altcoins.

Total Score: 6 Points.

You can sign up on Colodax.com. This is not a referral link.

Giottus Crypto Exchange

Giottus is one of the few self-funded Crypto exchanges launched in early 2018. The exchange has partnered with Bitfinex for liquidity and besides crypto trading offers features like SIP investment strategies, basket trading, instant buying, etc. It was co-founded by Vikram Subburaj and Arjun Vijay.

1. Crypto to INR trading: Yes (+1)

2. Crypto Deposits: Yes (+1)

3. Crypto Withdrawals: Yes (+1)

4. INR Deposits: Available (+1)

5. INR Withdrawals: Available (+1)

6. TDS Compliance: Compliant (+1)

7. X-Factor of the exchange: Giottus offers on-call Customer Support for any issues with their platform.

Total Score: 6 Points.

You can sign up on Giottus by clicking here.

Pocketbits Crypto Exchange

Founded by Sohail Merchant and Hussain Effendi in 2016, Pocketbits is one of the few closed order-book exchanges like CoinSwitch Kuber. Pocketbits lists a good number of tokens on the platform along with a vault service that allows users to stake their tokens and earn interest.

1. Crypto to INR trading: Yes (+1)

2. Crypto Deposits: Yes, not all (+1)

3. Crypto Withdrawals: Yes, not all (+1)

4. INR Deposits: Under Maintenance (-1)

5. INR Withdrawals: Available (+1)

6. TDS Compliance: Compliant (+1)

7. X-Factor of the exchange: Pocketbits offers over 10% interest on USDT staking services.

Total Score: 4 Points.

You can sign up on Pocketbits by clicking here.

Unocoin Crypto Exchange

Unocoin is the oldest crypto exchange in India. It was founded around 2015 by Sathvik Vishwanath, Harish B V, Sunny Ray and Abhinand Kaseti. Unocoin offers several unique services like paper wallets, autosell, Sub-broker services, crypto lending and more.

However, our assessment is strictly limited to the exchange’s features for INR-based trading.

1. Crypto to INR trading: Yes (+1)

2. Crypto Deposits: Yes (+1)

3. Crypto Withdrawals: Yes (+1)

4. INR Deposits: Available (+1)

5. INR Withdrawals: Available (+1)

6. TDS Compliance: Compliant (+1)

7. X-Factor of the exchange: Unocoin offers interest on crypto lending and several other features like SIP. Unocoin has both instant trade plus an open order book exchange.

Total Score: 6 Points.

You can sign up on Unocoin.com. To support our work, please do use referral code U-435001 while signing up.

WazirX Crypto Exchange

WazirX was founded in early 2018 by Nischal Shetty, Siddharth Menon and Sameer Mhatre. WazirX offers INR, USDT and WRX-based markets for several crypto tokens. It also features an auto-matching Peer to peer exchange. WazirX has had trading volumes of $1 Billion and more on several days in the bull run of 2021.

1. Crypto to INR trading: Yes (+1)

2. Crypto Deposits: Yes, but not all (+1)

3. Crypto Withdrawals: Yes, but not all (+1)

4. INR Deposits: Not Available (-1)

5. INR Withdrawals: Available (+1)

6. TDS Compliance: Compliant (+1)

7. X-Factor of the exchange: WazirX offers the fastest crypto withdrawal services in the industry.

8. Parity in Prices with other exchanges: Due to the unavailability of INR deposits, token prices on WazirX exchange are falling.

Total Score: 4 Points.

You can sign up on WazirX by clicking here.

ZebPay Crypto Exchange

ZebPay is one of the oldest crypto exchanges in India, however, it has gone through several leadership changes in the last few years. ZebPay offers multiple crypto tokens for trading on the INR, USDT and BUSD market along with crypto staking and lending services. ZebPay however recently became a closed order book exchange only offering quick buy and sell orders.

For now, we will focus on the INR market.

1. Crypto to INR trading: Yes (+1)

2. Crypto Deposits: Yes (+1)

3. Crypto Withdrawals: Yes (+1)

4. INR Deposits: Available (+1)

5. INR Withdrawals: Available (+1)

6. TDS Compliance: Compliant (+1)

7. X-Factor of the exchange: ZebPay offers instant deposits of INR with Virtual accounts.

Total Score: 6 Points.

You can sign up on ZebPay by clicking here.

Exceptions:

The above score and updates are based on the status on exchange websites/apps on August 10, 2022. Some services may temporarily go down on these exchanges and hence disrupt the service.

There are also several factors that may benefit a few traders but also work negatively for others. For instance, while CoinDCX and Coinswitch have scored lower, the unavailability of Crypto deposits and withdrawals make it safer from external scrutiny that WazirX is facing these days.

Similarly, an exchange may score well, but would not be a liking for users because of issues with INR withdrawals or deposits. Hence, this is of utmost importance that you carry this information as a guide and not absolute truth in your quest to trade crypto.

Now that we have scored all INR-Crypto spot exchanges, it is time to judge the other kind of crypto exchanges that Indians can use.

Peer-to-Peer exchanges Supporting INR in India:

Peer-to-peer exchanges for cryptocurrencies have been around for a very long time. However, with the new tax rules in India, many P2P exchanges have seen their volume dip. In the second part of this article, we will analyse the P2P marketplaces in India.

This letter has run out of space, and I cannot possibly test and write about each P2P Exchange in India in this article. So we will include the P2P exchange comparison in the newsletter tomorrow.

Please make sure you subscribe to the Newsletter so the article on P2P exchanges reaches your inbox as soon as we publish it.

Update: Title revised to show this as comparison to help users choose the exchanges of their choice.

Affiliate Disclosure:

Some of the links shared above for crypto exchanges may be affiliate links. If you click on any of those affiliate links, sign up and trade within a certain time frame, I’ll earn a small commission. The commission is paid by the exchanges, at no cost to you. In some cases, you may even benefit from it.

I’m careful to link to products that I have used myself. Thank you for your support.