Buying Bitcoin in India? Top 4 Indian Bitcoin Exchange Compared.
This is the number 1 question people are asking these days – how to buy bitcoin in India? By all accounts, everyone buys bitcoins, whether they understand the underlying technology or not, and some buyers make hasty and irrational decisions. However, contrary to popular belief, not everyone has entered the crypto space.
2017 was an interesting year with many bitcoin exchanges opening up in India. It has become much easier to buy, sell and even trade bitcoins and some altcoins using mobile apps and user-friendly websites.
Bitcoin is currently valued at just over $ 17,000 at the time of this writing, and its meteoric rise is nothing short of a miracle. Either that or a very well-planned instrument for truly decentralizing the economy. Only time will tell, but for now, if you reside in India and are looking to buy bitcoins, here are the 10 best bitcoin exchanges in India we have reviewed.
1. BuyUCoin
BuyUCoin is one of the largest bitcoin exchange and wallet providers in India. In fact, BuyUCoin also supports a number of other altcoins such as Litecoin, Ripple, and several ERC20 tokens. You can buy bitcoin and 30 different types of altcoins right now. There are over 1,300 altcoins on the market now. Blinded? I told you that not everyone has entered the crypto market.
The process is pretty straightforward and straightforward. You must create an account and verify your email address. Then you need to complete the KYC by uploading the required documents such as driver’s license, Aadhaar card, phone number and residential address. You will also need to enter your bank account details to enable NEFT / RTGS payments.
In my case, BuyUCoin verified and activated my account in about 2 days, but sometimes it can take longer due to a new wave of new customers. You can create your Bitcoin and Altcoin wallets with the click of a button. And now you are ready to buy bitcoins.
BuyUCoins claims to have 0% commission. I have not made any transactions yet, so I am not aware of hidden fees or 0% commission claims. I invite you to be diligent and compare the buy / sell prices before making a trade. Remember that prices are slightly higher in the Asian economy than in the West.
Pros
- 0% Transaction Fee
- Regulated & Registered Indian Company
- Supports Multiple Currencies
Cons
- Mobile app not yet available
Web site
2. Zebpay
Zebpay is another popular bitcoin exchange where you can buy the most popular and expensive currency in the world, Bitcoin or Gold 2.0 as it is commonly called.
While Zebpay only supports Bitcoin at the moment, it announced soon, but will also support popular altcoins.
The process for buying bitcoins is simple and similar to Unocoin. You create an account with your details and go through the verification process. To buy Bitcoins through Zebpay, you first need to deposit money from your bank account into your Zebpay account and then use that money to buy Bitcoins.
To deposit money to Zebpay, you have two options: either initiate an NEFT transfer using your bank online or offline banking, or use a payment gateway from PayU to transfer money via Internet banking. If you use NEFT, there are no additional transaction fees (other than the small standard NEFT fee of INR 5.75), but if you choose to use the PayU gateway, you will have to bear the 1.4% transaction fees. Also, oddly enough, the two most popular banks in India i.e. HDFC and ICICI are not listed on the PayU payment gateway.
Zebpay also offers you buy and sell options, which means you can trade bitcoin if you can accurately predict the price results. Since prices can fluctuate a lot, it is best to warm your hands up before you start trading bitcoin in large quantities.
Pros
- Regulated & Registered Company in India
- Android App Available
- You can buy Mobile Airtime with Bitcoin directly on Zebpay
Cons
- Their fees are directly included in their buy / sell prices, which means they are overpriced. Less transparency
- Only supports bitcoins
Website | Android app
3. Coinsecure
Coinsecure claims to be the first Bitcoin exchange in India to support the REST API . You will need to create an account and go through the verification and KYC process. Once this is done, you can download the Android app and start trading. It offers an order book feature so you can place buy and sell orders based on your forecast of the future value of bitcoin.
Coinsecure gives the feeling that it is intended to be used for trading bitcoins and not for investing or buying bitcoins. The interface is not the most user-friendly of them, but we hope that it will get better over time. During our test, we compared the purchase prices of Bitcoins against Zebpay and found that Coinsecure’s bitcoin prices were slightly overpriced.
Pros
- Regulated & Registered Indian Company
- Low Fee at 0.3%
- REST API
Cons
- Only supports bitcoins
- Prices are slightly overpriced
Website | Android app
4. UnoCoin
Unocoin is another Indian bitcoin exchange that comes bundled with Android and iOS apps. It is quite easy to create an account and you need to follow the KYC process.
Unocoin stands out for the fact that you can use your bitcoins to book tickets to eTravelSmart , which is a bus booking platform. UnoCoin also introduced SIP with 0% commission. Another major partnership was with BookMyShow, a popular platform for booking tickets to entertainment events. You can use Unocoin to fund your BookMyShow wallet. It’s nice to be able to use your bitcoins in the real world. Gives you more confidence, doesn’t it?
The process of buying bitcoins with UnoCoin is similar to the other bitcoin wallet on this list. You create a wallet account, go through the verification process, after verifying the account, transfer money from your bank account to your Zebpay account, and then use that money to buy bitcoins.
Pros
- Regulated & Registered Indian Company
- 0.7% Transaction Fee (0.5% for Wholesale Traders).
- Indian Registered and Regulated Company
- iOS and Android Mobile Apps
Cons
- Currently only supports bitcoin
Website | Android | iOS
Conclusion – how to buy bitcoin in India
It is good to see bitcoin adoption in India as there is an amazing level of adoption in overseas markets, but the bitcoin community in India is still small. We hope to see more partnerships in the future and blockchain technology will usher in a new era of development and progress.
Always compare bitcoin prices across different wallets and see where they get the best deal as it seems like there is a difference between the prices listed on different exchanges.
It is also recommended to store Bitcoins in offline wallets. If you do not know what it is and how to create it, stay tuned. We will publish guides shortly on how to create an offline Bitcoin wallet and why you need one.