37-year-old Kumar Abhishek, who doubles up as a crypto trader while also working as a mortgage underwriter at a multinational company in New Delhi, has been investing in cryptocurrencies for the last two years.
26-year-old Karan Sharma, who has been investing in crypto tokens since 2017, has also increased the portion of stablecoins in his portfolio for similar reasons.
Abhishek and Sharma represent a growing pool of Indian crypto users who are now starting to hedge the inherent risk in Bitcoin, which has dominated trade so far across the country’s crypto exchanges.
We have seen the highest-ever volumes in stablecoins in India in the last two months, said Vikram Rangala, chief marketing officer at ZebPay.
Bitex, which is headquartered in United Arab Emirates and entered India in November last year, claims that USDT trading volumes grew nine-times in April compared to last month, when it first launched the stablecoin on its platform.
Trading volumes of Tether had more than doubled to $171 billion as of April 20 compared to $54 billion a year ago, as per the latest data available on global cryptocurrency data tracker CoinMarketCap.com.
Bitcoin, which rose as high as $64,870 this year, has retreated back to $55,000.
“A dip in bitcoin prices also causes the prices of altcoins to drop thereby encouraging traders to buy into the dip.
A third possible reason for higher stablecoin volumes in India, according to Monark Modi, founder and chief executive at Bitex, is the uncertain regulatory environment around cryptocurrencies in India and across the globe.
“In India, too, there has been talk of an impending ban, which is leading investors to convert their crypto assets into stablecoins and holding them till the final announcement comes.