Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges in India
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WazirX
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Required
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Required
Why We Picked It
WazirX is one of the fastest growing cryptocurrency exchanges of India with more than 60 lakhs registered users. This platform has a user-friendly interface and is available across web, android, iOS and windows apps.
Key Features:
Enables users to invest in INR, USD, Bitcoin, and even to make peer-to-peer, P2P transactions.
WazirX also has its own digital currency named WRX, which can be purchased by using INR and can be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Dogecoin.
Minimum investment required is INR 100 which is to be deposited in WazirX wallet via NEFT, RTGS and IMPS.
As per the company, the exchange clocked a monthly volume of $10 billion.
The users can also use the platform’s P2P option for deposits, which is completely free. P2P helps the user to convert their fiat currency into crypto instantly.
WazirX offers more than 450 tradable cryptocurrencies.
Fully-loaded mobile app offering features such as detailed charts, live-market status, quick buy/sell options.
Allow customers to make fast payments via lightning network.
Pros & Cons
Pioneered the world’s first automated P2P trading platform.
Instant price alert feature on WazirXApp.
Beginner-friendly and easy user interface.
Offers more than 450 tradable cryptocurrency.
Presence on the web, android & iOS mobile, windows apps.
Trading fee is 0.2%, which is a bit on the higher side.
Less coin options as compared to its international parent company, Binance.
Charges a huge trading commission on withdrawal of funds.
Does not have an insurance fund for the hack cases.
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CoinDCX
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Required
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Required
Why We Picked It
CoinDCX is regarded as one of the safest crypto trading platforms of India. The total number of registered users is more than 1.3 crore. This platform provides a wide range of crypto related products and services such as margin trading, futures and lending options. CoinDCX mobile app is available both on android and iOS.
Key Features:
The user can make deposits via NEFT, RTGS and IMPS along with the P2P option.
The minimum deposit is only INR100.
Provides options for marginal and future trading along with instant buy and sell features.
To ensure a high level of safety, 95% of funds on CoinDCX are stored in cold wallets.
Launched a unique feature to show the users about their profit and loss statements
Pros & Cons
Facilitates fast order execution, arbitrage opportunities, and limitless trading.
Free deposit and withdrawal fee.
Charges less commission and which get even lower as trading volume increases.
Allows 15x leverage with future trading.
High cybersecurity measures such as solid encryption and password protection practices.
Only supports INR as the fiat currency.
Tedious process of opening an account.
Recent hike in trading fee from 0.1% to 0.2%.
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CoinSwitch Kuber
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Requirement:
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Requirement:
Why We Picked It
CoinSwitch Kuber has more than 1.5 core registered users . The users can trade in more than 80 cryptocurrencies with as low as INR 100. This platform provides a variety of trading pairs such as INR to crypto exchange, crypto to crypto and crypto to INR trading. It has also launched the crypto rupee index, the benchmark index for measuring the performance of the Indian rupee based crypto market.
Key Features:
Supports INR as a fiat currency, and thus withdrawal and deposits are made in INR only.
Accepts deposit payment methods such as NEFT, RTGS, IMPS and P2P.
Reliable and clean user interface which can be beneficial for beginners.
Provides informative educational resources on blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
The minimum investment requirement is INR 100.
Pros & Cons
Beginner-friendly and easy to use interface.
Facility of instant buy, sell and withdrawal.
Real-time live chatbot for instant user support.
No charge for deposits and withdrawals.
No demonstration or free trial is available as KYC is a must.
Only supports INR as the fiat currency.
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Binance India
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Requirement
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Requirement
Why We Picked It
The users of Binance India have access to trade in more than 600 cryptocurrencies in INR, at a very low fee rate structure. At present, Binance has nine crores registered users. As Binance acquired WazirX in 2019, so Indians can purchase the currencies tradable on Binance platform through the WazirX wallet, and thus, can set up the connection between both the websites.
Key Features:
Ensure high level of security of the user’s fund, store 10% of all trading fees in a secure asset fund.
Offers a huge crypto product line ranges from spot, futures, cross interest, swap farming, margin trading, P2P, etc.
Provides Binance Visa card to Indian users, which can be used to make purchases online or in-store.
As per the company, the monthly volume of Binance is $76 Billion
Offers non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, which consist of NFT mystery boxes,fan token and a wide variety of digital art collection.
Launched the high-yield staking center, which enables users to earn up to 104% APY.
Pros & Cons
Standard commission is very low: 0.10%.
User-friendly experience along with high-tech features such as 3DS measure.
Very simple account opening process.
Supports several educational initiatives for educating Indian investors.
Corporate structure is not very transparent.
Customer support is inefficient.
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UnoCoin
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Required
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Required
Why We Picked It
UnoCoin exchnage is one of the leading and oldest exchanges for buying, selling and storing Bitcoin along with the other merchant processing activities. The user can trade in different 80 kinds of digital currencies on this platform.
Key Features:
Launched the first of its kind systematic buying plans (SBP) for Bitcoin and Ethereum for as little as INR 10.
Charges a fee of 0.5% to buy or sell bitcoin.
Facilitates the lending feature related to over-the-counter (OTC) trade that enables the trading in bulk.
Crypto Basket feature allow users to diversify their crypto portfolio based on market capitalization or volume.
Enable users to purchase store coins in a varied selection of over 40 Unocoin Wallets.
The minimum deposit amount is INR 1000 which can be deposited via IMPS, NEFT and RTGS payment options.
The total number of registered users is more than 20 lakh.
Enable users to to recharge their mobile phones or DTH using Bitcoin
Offers “Gold Member” accounts where users can enjoy higher buying and selling limits along with lower transaction fees.
Pros & Cons
Enable users to opt for SBP to boost their returns.
Ensures better crypto lending feature, helps users hold the Bitcoin in the form of the mortgage USD or INR against it.
Good discounts on ‘Refer and Earn’ schemes
Limited live chatbot options.
Verification process is very tedious.
Costly Bitcoin prices and high transaction fees.
Supports INR as fiat currency and is only regulated in India.
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Bitbns
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Requirement
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Requirement
Why We Picked It
With almost 400 cryptocurrencies listed, Bitbns enables its users to trade in the wide variety of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Binance Coin and more. The total number of users registered with this platform is more than 40 lakh.
Key Features:
The user has the option to choose a standard e-wallet or order a Bitbns hardware wallet to store funds.
Advanced and updated training system for beginners and novice traders.
Provides trading options like margin trading which can be leveraged by experienced traders and automated trading options.
The exchange does not charge any deposit fee but a withdrawal fee is applicable on all transactions.
Facility of instant price alerts for orders like bracket orders, limit orders, and stop-limit orders.
Offers products such as SIP in bitcoin, FIP which is fixed deposit to boost returns on crypto investments.
Variety of referral programs such as crypto gift voucher, sprink vouchers and other contests.
Pros & Cons
Availability of a wide variety of crypto coins and tokens.
Enable the user to opt for a hardware wallet for storing cryptocurrencies.
Easy to use training system for novice traders.
Works only on web browsers, iOS, and Android.
INR and AED (Arab Emirate Dirham) are the only fiat currency options.
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BuyUCoin
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Requirement
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Requirement
Why We Picked It
BuyUCoin is popular among the millennial users because of its easy user interface and features such as– real-time spot trading, free wallet, cashback, and lifetime commission on referrals. The total number of registered users is more than 10 lakh.
Key Features:
Allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies using INR.
No charge for any deposit fee or Know Your Customer (KYC) fee.
Transactions related to OTC wholesale trading come at no fee.
Offers a variety of perks and offers such as crypto cashback EzBack offers.
Launched systematic crypto investment plans (SCIP) to maximize the returns.
Provides more than 130 crypto pairs like BTC-INR, ETH-INR, DOGE-INR, YFI-INR and much more.
It has a user-friendly mobile app available on iOS and android.
Pros & Cons
Lowest fee structure rates, no fee on trading through OTC wholesale desk.
Own its NFT marketplace.
Option of creating a virtual demo account.
It is only limited to Indian investors and deals only in INR as fiat currency.
Website interface looks mundane.
Dissatisfactory customer support services.
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Zebpay
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Required
Cryptocurrencies Available
Minimum Investment Required
Why We Picked It
ZebPay is known among the crypto investors for earning interest on idle crypto holdings. Currently, the exchange is supporting more than 100 crypto coins at its platform with almost 50 lakh registered users.
Key Features:
ZebPay has strong security measures ,where almost 98% of coin storage is in cold wallets.
ZebPay earn and ZebPay lending programs, allow the users to earn interest by holding and lending the crypto coins, respectively.
Provides trading across six EUR-crypto pairs and five crypto-crypto pairs across Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash.
Allows customers to make fast payments via lightning network.
Pros & Cons
No-fee trading on select pairs.
Attractive reward and referral programs.
No fee on withdrawals and deposits of crypto.
Offering up to 10% for lending your crypto.
Supports very few coins and crypto trading pairs.
Not user-friendly and reputed as other top exchanges in India.
No real-time chatbot option.
Methodology
While evaluating and choosing the top cryptocurrency exchanges in India, Forbes Advisor analyzed these exchanges on the basis of the following parameters:
Research was conducted on the various cryptocurrency exchange platforms, based on their trading volumes, liquidity, crypto related products, trading experience, customer support services and number of registered users on the platform.
Examined what kind of tradable cryptocurrencies and trading pairs are available on the exchange platform, especially one with the high volumes like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others.
Analyzed the platform’s level of security measures and whether they have legitimate buy and sell operations in India or not.
Compare the exchanges on the basis of their fee structure, which is well-explained on their official websites and also checked carefully, if there are any hidden charges involved or not.
The availability of deposit methods such as net banking, bank transfer, P2P and the minimum amount required to open an account with exchange. Read How To Buy Bitcoin In India to have a deeper understanding about trading in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in India.
The user interface experience of the exchange’s browser and mobile app, is one of the most important deciding factors in choosing the most suitable kind of cryptocurrency exchange.
Educational resources are also a very crucial factor in choosing an exchange, especially for novice traders. It is always advisable to look for a platform, loaded with relevant educational resources, that certainly helps a beginner to understand the complexities of this rapidly developing cryptocurrencies market.
The location, as many exchanges are unregulated or unstructured and some are available in a particular geographic area only.
What is a Cryptocurrency Exchange and How Does It Work?
Cryptocurrency exchange is an online trading platform that acts like an intermediary between buyer and seller of cryptocurrencies.These platforms enable trading in cryptocurrencies in exchange for digital and fiat currencies. These exchanges facilitate a user to deposit money via methods such as direct bank transfer, net banking or P2P etc and charge a commission or fee for every transaction done using its services. If you want to know more on how to purchase a cryptocurrency in detail, read How To Buy Cryptocurrency. The process of opening an account with any of these exchanges is fairly simple. After selecting an appropriate exchange, a user needs to follow these steps to open a trading account:
Download the app of the exchange you have selected and create an account.
Fill up the necessary information like email id, name and contact details.
After verifying the email, the user receives the mail on the same id for KYC details.
Verify the address on your email id and complete the KYC process.
Set a good strength password
Never share any passwords of your app, wallet, or exchange as it is difficult to recover it.
What Are the Different Types of Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Centralized Exchanges or CEX
These kinds of exchanges are the most common kind of platform that ensures easy, simple processes along with a very smooth user interface of crypto trading. As the name suggests, a central entity is responsible for governing and regulating these exchanges.
Every order or transaction is recorded, validated by the company to avoid any further discrepancies. The user’s fund is deposited in the wallet, managed by the CEX. And, to open an account here, the user needs to fulfill the KYC requirements where personal information of the user is shared.
Decentralized Exchanges or DEX
These kinds of exchanges are truly decentralized in nature, meaning there is no company or institution regulating these exchanges. The trades that take place on the exchange are fully automated and are executed through smart contracts and decentralized applications. At the same time, no KYC and no personal information is required here. DEXs are known to be more secure as they are automated via smart contracts, which are being written keeping required security checks in mind.
However, the interface of DEXs is not as smooth as CEXs, which generally impacts transaction speed and its volume. CEXs might prove to be more useful for beginners and novice traders and DEXs for experienced one.
Hybrid Exchanges or HEX
Hybrid exchanges have the best features of both decentralized and centralized exchanges. A hybrid crypto exchange is still in a developemental phase. It has the liquidity feature just like the centralized platforms and maintains the anonymity and security, like the decentralized exchanges. One of the most notable features while transacting through HEX trading is that, there are no taker fees and gas fees involved here.
Types of Cryptocurrency Exchanges Charges in India
In India, different cryptocurrency exchanges levies different charges and fees. Let’s have a look in more detail at what these charges are:
Joining Fee
Majority of the cryptocurrency exchanges in India, such as WazirX, Zebpay, Bitbns and Unocoin, have completely waived off the joining fee. However, there may be a very small amount of membership fee in the case of inactive accounts.
Deposit Fee
This fee is charged when the user deposits money or coins to the crypto exchange to initiate the buying or selling. Deposit fee amount depends totally on how the user has transferred the money, whether through payment service providers, Mobikwik, a crypto wallet, UPI, Net banking or bank transfers.
Trading Charges
Trading charges are the most important part of cryptocurrency exchange’s fee mechanism. Trading fees may be levied as a flat percentage of the amount of crypto that a trader buys or sells, or an exchange may charge according to the orders placed, such as makers and takers, are charged differently. So before going further, it is crucial to understand- Maker and Taker fees.
A maker is a party that creates liquidity on the exchange by selling cryptocurrency
The taker is the party that takes it off the liquidity by buying the cryptocurrencies.
Both maker and taker pays a certain amount of fees for the transaction. However, makers generally pay less.
The trading charges vary across exchanges, ranging from almost 0% to 0.25% in most of the exchanges. However, it is to be noted that certain exchanges claim to charge the user zero fees, one must look carefully, that if they are charging in the form of spread — the difference between the rate of buying or selling the cryptocurrency. And, generally this rate is higher as compared to the trading fee.
Withdrawal Fee
Some exchanges charge the user on the withdrawal of money into fiat. Withdrawing money happens when a user places a sell order on the exchange and then the funds reflect in his or her wallet. The user here can withdraw money fully or partially, into their registered bank account, for which he or she may be charged. The user also has the option of making a withdrawal in coins, that also has a cost attached.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to Purchase Cryptocurrency In India?
To purchase a cryptocurrency of your own, you will need to have a cryptocurrency exchange where buyer and seller exchange fiat currency for crypto coins. Once you choose an exchange, then you need to make a deposit into your account, to start trading in cryptocurrencies. At present, payment done via UPI and Mobikwik has been disabled in India due to regulatory issues. However, the user can deposit into an account via bank transfer, net banking and through P2P transfers. Once you have money in your account, then you can easily place an order to buy your favorite coin, just by tapping a button.
Are Cryptocurrency Exchanges Allowed to Operate in India?
Trading and dealing in cryptocurrencies is legal, under any provision of law in India. As far as the regulations are concerned, cryptocurrency exchanges are very much allowed to have their operations in India.
Is It Possible to Convert Cryptocurrency in Cash?
Yes, with the help of an exchange platform the user can easily convert cryptocurrency to cash, or can convert fiat currencies to cryptocurrency.
Do All Cryptocurrency Exchanges in India Charge Fees?
Yes, all crypto trading platforms charge fees in one form or the other. Some of the exchanges follow a maker and taker model and thus charge differently from makers and takers while placing an order. However, others do not differentiate between makers and takers and charge a flat fee.
What Do You Mean By Crypto Wallet?
Cryptocurrency wallets or digital wallets are a place to store cryptocurrencies in a much-secured way. The user can hold their wallet through an exchange account or outside of the exchange. The user also has an online or hot wallet, which is connected via the internet to your desktop PC or mobile phone. Another option is cold wallet, which is not connected via the internet and thus is the most secure option to store cryptocurrency. With cold storage, one must remember the private keys which is a cryptic number for your cryptocurrency.
Information provided on Forbes Advisor is for educational purposes only. Your financial situation is unique and the products and services we review may not be right for your circumstances. We do not offer financial advice, advisory or brokerage services, nor do we recommend or advise individuals or to buy or sell particular stocks or securities. Performance information may have changed since the time of publication. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Forbes Advisor adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. To the best of our knowledge, all content is accurate as of the date posted, though offers contained herein may no longer be available. The opinions expressed are the author’s alone and have not been provided, approved, or otherwise endorsed by our partners.
Rashi Maheshwari is a Deputy Editor for Forbes Advisor India. She has more than a decade of experience working in news, public relations and communications. In the past, she has worked with CNBC Awaaz, CryptoWire, among others and has covered beats including insurance, personal investments and cryptocurrency. She is a travel enthusiast and would like to visit every country and try as many different culinary specialities as possible.
