Stablecoins Gaining Popularity in India to Minimize Central Bank’s Impact

A growing number of cryptocurrency exchanges in India are adding stablecoins such as trueusd (TUSD) and tether (USDT) to their platforms. They are part of the solutions exchanges have come up with in order to minimize the impact of the crypto banking ban imposed by the country’s central bank.

Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space

Unocoin Adds TUSD

Unocoin, one of India’s largest crypto exchanges, announced on Wednesday the addition of TUSD to its crypto-to-crypto platform, Unodax. An ERC-20 token built on the Trusttoken platform, each TUSD is said to be backed by one USD held in reserve which can be redeemed. Unodax currently offers 23 TUSD trading pairs including BTC, BCH, ETH, LTC, and XRP.

“The decision [to add TUSD] has been taken to minimise the RBI circular’s impact on cryptocurrency investors and traders,” Inc42 reported. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank, issued the circular banning banks from providing services to crypto companies on April 6.

The publication quoted the exchange’s CEO and co-founder, Sathvik Vishwanath, commenting on the addition:

After the RBI banned bank transfers for crypto trading and investments, we were looking for the plausible solutions to help our users continue to hodl, without any disruptions and hassles.

“With trueusd, we are excited to present our users with a long-awaited stable trading plan for crypto-assets traders on our Unodax exchange,” he continued. “Crypto enthusiasts may use this stable coin as a medium of exchange for other crypto-assets and minimise their risks in a volatile market.”

Zebpay Slashes Withdrawal Fee for TUSD

Another major crypto exchange in India, Zebpay, added TUSD to its platform earlier this week, as news.Bitcoin.com previously reported.

The exchange also slashed withdrawal fees for multiple currencies. For TUSD, “withdrawal fees are zero till 31st August 2018.” Zebpay wrote:

You can now buy, sell and trade TUSD in two trading pairs: TUSD-INR and BTC-TUSD.

Wazirx Uses USDT in P2P, Adds TUSD

Crypto exchange Wazirx launched an escrowed “P2P” service on July 10 that uses tether to enable users to deposit and withdraw INR in an effort to bypass RBI’s ban. Issued on the Bitcoin blockchain via the Omni Layer protocol, each USDT is backed by one USD that Tether Limited claims is held in reserve and can be redeemed for cash. Wazirx has also added TUSD as a deposit option.

The exchange explained that USDT is used “to make stability and crazy liquidity happen,” elaborating:

While building Wazirx P2P, we realized that since crypto price fluctuations are beyond our control, we needed to bring in a stable coin…Since we wanted to add the stable coin with the highest liquidity in the global market, we’ve decided to go with tether.

More Indian Exchanges Offering TUSD and USDT

On Saturday, August 11, Zecoex announced that it has introduced the TUSD trade markets for BTC, ETH, and XRP pairs.

Coindelta has also added USDT for trading, deposits, and withdrawals. Trading against INR was enabled on July 19 and against the platform’s long list of cryptocurrencies on July 24. The exchange noted, “USDT is a stable coin, the value of USDT is always tethered to the US dollar price. This makes it easy for people to hold their funds.”

Koinex introduced TUSD on July 6 and aims for this trading market to serve as an alternative to INR as a stable currency. Users can deposit and trade TUSD against INR, BTC, ETH, and XRP. The exchange detailed:

With the absence of INR corridors, we began to find a suitable alternative to the stability of digital assets against fiat currency. After sincere efforts, we are glad to announce the introduction of trueusd (TUSD) as a stable coin on Koinex.

What do you think of Indian exchanges using stablecoins to minimize RBI’s impact? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Unocoin, Zebpay, Wazirx, Trusttoken, and Tether.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.