Every day at 7 p.m., Mumbai-based techie Anish Gupta switches from his work laptop to his home one. The 27-year-old programmer transforms into a crypto trader, taking advantage of late-night opportunities in the highly volatile market.
“My monthly income from day trading sometimes exceeds my pay,” said Gupta, who works for a Gurgaon-based IT outsourcing firm.
Gupta, who primarily trades Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tron, is part of a rising group of small investors who are turning to cryptocurrency to augment their salaries.
According to market experts, the number of traders has increased significantly as cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Doge, Shiba Inu, and Solana have reached all-time highs.
The number of day traders who make money simply by holding positions in various crypto assets has increased by 200-500 percent, according to top exchanges.
According to exchanges, there are over 105 million Indians who own crypto assets, with a little more than 1 million dealers.
“We have approximately 80,000 Indian high-frequency traders on a daily basis, up from 20,000-25,000 during the bull market of 2017-2018. Day traders are drawn to high-volatility assets, as well as fresh and emerging projects with wild fluctuations, which they try to profit from “According to Shivam Thakral, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange BuyUcoin.
The average monthly trade volume has increased as trading has grown, according to cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch Kuber.
During the lockdown, the majority of people began investing.
Wazir X, another exchange, has ten million members. In 2021, the total volume reached $36 billion.
“WazirX has seen an average 44 percent rise in volume month over month, while new signups have increased tenfold,” a spokeswoman stated.
Most Indians began investing in cryptocurrency during the lockdown, when companies began working from home, attracted by the huge returns despite inherent volatility and persuaded by the well-funded crypto exchanges’ high-voltage advertising efforts.
As corporations began to ask employees to return to their offices, traders began trading after hours. The majority of cryptocurrency exchanges in India allow dealers to trade 24 hours a day, seven days a week. According to industry watchers, this is what appears to be drawing young investors. According to them, the majority of global traders choose Bitcoin.
“As of November 5th, 2021, the BTC balance (amount of Bitcoins) at OKEx is at an all-time high, second only to CoinBase Pro,” stated Lennix Lai, director of financial markets at the cryptocurrency platform.
Many Indian traders, on the other hand, have begun to experiment with novel cryptocurrencies, such as meme coins.