In this article, we will discuss 10 exchanges to buy bitcoin in india.

On 6th April 2018, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a statement today ordering all companies and businesses that are registered with them, to stop dealing with entities that deal with cryptocurrencies. The announcement comes with a warning that all dealings with the cryptocurrency market and entities that represent them must be terminated within a stipulated period of three months.

On 4th March 2020, Supreme Court of India has struck off Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) banking ban against bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The Court held that RBI Circular dated 6th April 2018 is unconstitutional.

Local Bitcoins

A bitcoin-start-up company in Finland, Local Bitcoins facilitates the over-the-counter trading of local currency for bitcoins. It is P2P trading exchange supporting every payment method and allows people from varying countries to purchase bitcoin for their local currency. In India, this company has operations in all major cities including New Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Surat, Chennai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Pune, Guwahati, and several more.

How to Buy Bitcoins from Local Bitcoins

Once logged in, the users on the home page can enter the amount of crypto they would like to purchase/sell (under the Quick Buy/Sell options) and choose the country and the preferred payment method.

On pressing Search , a list of advertisement traders along with their username, number of completed trades, and trade-feedback score. The payment method of each advertisement is also specified in the next column followed by the price/BTC and the limits column which shows the price of one BTC and the largest and smallest unit of BTC you can buy respectively.

For detailed information about the trade, the user can press the Buy. (It is advised to twice check whether the amount is correct.)

The next step is to press the Send Trade Request button.

The trades are escrow-protected and the peers have an option to ‘chat’ with each other. The payment window has a time running and it is imperative to pay before that time runs out failing which the trade will be cancelled. The users are usually penalized a certain amount if they fail to comply after confirming.

The user should Mark Payment Complete which stops the trade from being cancelled automatically.

Once the payment has been received and a confirmation is given, the escrow deposits the coin into your Local Bitcoins wallet.

The above process is usually followed across all P2P exchanges, which connects the buyers and sellers directly. There is no exchange liquidity per se, apart from it providing wallets for purchase, deposit and withdrawal.

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How to buy bitcoins on localbitcoins

Buy Bitcoin on WazirX

Another p2p trading platform, WazirX is on its way to becoming India’s most trusted bitcoin exchange. The exchange allows you to buy, trade, and sell Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and many other cryptocurrencies in India. Also, this exchange has its native token WRX.

The exchange is based on KYC verification along with a strategic partnership with the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance. It has mobile apps for Android and iOS, and claims to provide multiple hundred transactions per second.

How can we Trade on WazirX

P2P for Purchase of USDT : WazirX connects a buyer and seller while acting as an escrow account to enable P2P trade between two entities. The P2P portal enables USDT trades only.

The seller is required to deposit the crypto with the exchange which is escrowed by the exchange during the transaction.

When the buyer makes the payment in INR via the linked bank accounts, the exchange releases the crypto on getting a confirmation from the seller.

Direct Deposit and Withdrawal: Since the upliftment of the RBI ban, it also began direct INR deposit and withdrawal to the exchange.

Exchange: The exchange portal opens crypto-crypto and FIAT-crypto trading pairs for a number of cryptocurrencies.

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How to buy bitcoin on Wazirx

Buy Bitcoin on InstaShift

InstaShift allows users to buy and/or sell cryptocurrency in a novel multi-party p2p model in an over-the-counter experience. The exchange provides the option of selling crypto in escrow and requires every buyer to have an existing wallet—which would not be a problem for crypto enthusiasts. The users can also receive money directly in their bank accounts and their crypto in InstaShift accounts.

How can we buy Bitcoin

On the homepage of the website, the users opt the ‘ Buy option’ where the amount of Bitcoin to be purchased or an equivalent fiat amount is entered at a price specified by the buyer.

To place the order, the buyers have to go through a mobile number verification.

When the order is placed, the exchange looks for a matching seller. at the specified price of the buyer. The exchange acts as an escrow between the two entities.

Once matched sellers have been identified, a timer runs on the screen under which the buyer has to transfer the fiat amount to the seller account.

On completing the transaction, the buyer selects the ‘ I Have Paid.’

After the seller confirms the payment, the crypto is transferred to the buyer’s account. In case the confirmation is delayed, or not received, buyers can raise a dispute with the exchange.

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How to buy bitcoin on instashift

Buy Bitcoin on Bitbns

Bitbns is an advanced p2p Indian crypto trading platform. Like Localbitcoins, it has an inbuilt wallet where you can store your bitcoins and crypto-assets. It facilitates the crypto trading of 65 crypto assets in a p2p model.

How can we buy Bitcoin

On the homepage, Start Trading Now option will lead to a signup screen. Follow the procedure, signup and then login into the personal account.

After login and KYC verification (if you skip KYC, you won’t be able to deposit and withdraw fiat and withdraw crypto assets), the wallets on the exchange are enabled.

Deposit the amount of cryptocurrency to be traded in the deposit address of the respective crypto wallet.

For FIAT withdrawals and deposits, a bank account belonging to the registered user is linked to the trading account.

After depositing the FIAT or crypto, trading in crypto assets is made available.

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How to buy bitcoin on BitBns

And just like that, you can buy Bitcoin and many more crypto assets in India.

We have listed only popular and generally preferable options for dealing with crypto assets in India. Other honourable mentions are Remitano and Paxful, where you can buy Bitcoins and other crypto assets.

How to buy bitcoins on Paxful

Update: 3/2/2020

LocalBitcoins is a great platform to buy/sell bitcoins in a large amount. But for smaller amounts, Wazirx is the best platform to trade bitcoin in India for smaller amounts. and If you like trading through USDT then Binance is the right place to go.

Update: 28/2/2020

Buy Bitcoin on Transak

Consensys Backed Indian Startup – Transak launched a simple and convenient solution to buy bitcoin through Bank transfer. Binance backed WazriX also integrated their solution into their product to enhance the bitcoin buying experience for Indian consumers.

It offers a non-custodial SDK platform for on and off-ramp multiple FIAT currencies. The integration between application (exchanges and trading platform) is established through their white-label API.

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Buy Bitcoin on Unocoin

Unocoin is one of the early exchanges in the market which were profusely affected by the RBI ban in 2018. Unocoin is one of few exchanges in India which offer OTC (Over-the-Counter) service for high volume customers.

Unocoin owners expressed their zeal towards the business in 2018, by installing India’s first Bitcoin ATM in Bangalore. The authorities soon cracked down on the owners of the exchange and shut down the ATM, Nevertheless, they continued with their efforts for inclusion for services within the country.

In May 2018, the team moved to announce a new crypto exchange, Unodax, built exclusively for the trading of crypto pairs. While Unocoin only allows for the buy, sell, send and receive of Bitcoin and Ethereum, Unodax lists a plethora of crypto assets.

How Can We Buy Bitcoin

Register Once, Use both : The mobile registration for Unocoin and Unodax are linked via the same password and can be used interchangeably.

Users are required to submit their Name (as it appears on your PAN card), PAN card number (with a digital copy), phone number and valid address (with an address proof) for KYC verification.

It also offers to generate Paper Wallets (usually for cold storage) to keep bitcoins safe.

To Deposit INR, money is uploaded in the digital INR wallet via the bank account number of Unocoin, which is verified and approved by the exchange

The balance in the INR wallet can be used to buy Bitcoin/Ethereum on Unocoin.

Unodax, on the other hand, lists 27 cryptocurrencies apart from Bitcoin along with base pairs in INR, TUSD, BTC, ETH, XRP and USDT.

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Buy Bitcoin on Zebpay

Zebpay was the leading crypto exchanges in India before the RBI ban was imposed. During the time it had over 3 million users and achieved $2 Billion in fiat transactions. Zebpay resumed their trading service in India and currently offering crypto to INR pair trading with zero trading fees.

The firm even moved it’s registered office outside India (in Singapore) to able to seamlessly service Indian customers in the midst of a regulatory crackdown. Nevertheless, the trading was made inactive across the country in June 2018.

After the supreme court’s decision to remove the ban, the exchange has resumed business in India. Currently, it lists five cryptocurrencies apart from Bitcoin which include Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin, EOS, and BAT.

How Can We Buy Bitcoin

Mobile number and KYC verification is the first process before trading on the online portal.

The deposit and withdrawal are made via IMPS, UPI, NEFT or RTGS to the exchange’s bank account.

The digital INR wallet on the exchange can be used to make crypto purchases.

Furthermore, it also allows for crypto-to-crypto conversion between the listed tokens at market rates.

The spread (the difference between buying and selling prices) is comparatively smaller at Zebpay than other exchanges in India.

Zebpay also offers Multi-Sig & Multi-Geo Authentication for Cold Wallets

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Buy Bitcoin on CoinDCX

CoinDCX is one of the fastest-growing crypto exchanges in the country. It lists more than 200 cryptocurrencies on its platform.

Along with providing a spot crypto exchange, it also offers Margin and Futures trading with up to 6x-20x leverage. A lending platform along with the futures and margin trading platform offers up to 20% annual interest on deposits.

During the period of RBI restrictions, the exchange began as a P2P service. Since the ban uplifted, it has moved to instant deposit and withdrawal of FIAT.

Deposit and Withdrawal of INR from CoinDCX Wallet are made using UPI/IMPS via the bank account owned by the user and linked with the exchange.

Moreover, it also provides direct purchase of all the cryptocurrenices listed on the exchange reducing a step of using the ‘spot exchange’ market from INR or USDT base pairs.

The margin trading portal is linked to Binance which offers long and short contracts for up to 6x leverage

The futures trading portal uses liquidity of CoinDCX itself, it offers leverage up to 20x.

It also offers a maximum purchase of up to Rs 5,000 (approx $65-70) without KYC verification as well.

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Buy Bitcoin on Cashaa

Cashaa is a UK-based cryptocurrency website, which entered the Indian markets recently. It lists four cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT (Tether), and native exchange crypto, CAS.

The exchange claims to offer 100% ownership with on-chain compliances. It provides a keycard including the private keys for the wallets. The keys to the crypto wallets can be used for recovery of funds on the blockchain itself.

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Buy Bitcoin on Pocketbits

Founded in 2016, Pocketbits is one of the lesser-known exchanges in the country. It offers additional services like ‘Shop With Bits’ which allows for purchasing eCommerce vouchers and gift cards. The customer service of the exchange has received mixed reviews on the internet.

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