Binance Downloads in India Surpasses Other Foreign Crypto Exchanges, Nears 430,000 Mark

The crypto community in India seems to be tapping into international crypto exchanges after home-grown players found themselves embroiled in legal troubles in the country. Binance, the US-based crypto exchange headed by Changpeng Zhao has clocked 429,000 downloads in India as of August this year. With this, the international crypto exchange has surpassed its competitors Coinbase, FTX, and CoinMarketCap among others, in terms of garnering downloads from Indian investors. The detail has been highlighted by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

The development comes days after Binance CEO Zhao claimed that it does not completely own Indian exchange WazirX, which has been under investigation in India over alleged money laundering charges. At the time. Zhao had hinted that it did have a say in shutting down WazirX and asked Indian users to migrate to the main Binance platform to facilitate exchange.

While Binance has recorded a jump in its India-centric userbase, WazirX’s monthly downloads slipped to 92,000 in August from about 596,000 in January, a Bloomberg report noted.

Indian crypto investors have been brought under the tax regime this year. Members of the community are paying a 30 percent tax on transactions of virtual digital assets since April.

Later in May, India also imposed one percent tax deductions on each crypto transaction including every purchase and deposit of crypto assets.

In the backdrop of these tax laws coming into effect, CoinDCX downloads shrank to 163,000 in August from 2.2 million in January and Coinbase downloads trimmed to 16,000 in August from almost 31,000 in June.

As per the Bloomberg report, Binance has emerged as the most downloaded international crypto exchange with its low fees, varied offerings, and a popular peer-to-peer marketplace for facilitating movement between tokens and cash.

The crypto exchange, founded in 2017, is striving to become the most licenced crypto exchange in the world.

The company has already scored operational licences in Kazakhstan, France, and the UAE.

Back in July, Ken Li, the investment director at Binance Labs had told Gadgets 360 in an interview that the company was actively monitoring the Indian market to grab lucrative business opportunities.