Earlier this year, the Indian government insisted on imposing a heavy tax on cryptocurrency transactions amid controversy in order to cool down the coin frenzy, but it still failed to dampen the enthusiasm of investors. Instead, a large number of users gave up using local exchanges and switched to And the influx into Binance.
Binance India’s user count hits record high
The lower house of the Indian parliament passed the cryptocurrency taxation bill in March this year, in addition to levying a 30% tax on capital gains from cryptocurrency transactions from April 1, and from July 1, cryptocurrencies over $126 will be taxed. Transactions are subject to an additional 1% Tax Deducted at Source (TDS).
According to Bloomberg , the number of Indian user registrations on the global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has skyrocketed since the implementation of tax deduction at source (TDS) in early July, and in August alone, the number of downloads of the Binance App in India has increased . It jumped to 429,000 times, breaking this year’s record.
In contrast, the daily trading volume of several large cryptocurrency exchanges in India has dropped by more than 90%.
Indian cryptocurrency exchanges hit hard
Clearly, at this stage, foreign and Indian exchanges are dealing with transaction taxes on investors differently. The report quoted several users as saying that Indian platforms have begun to deduct taxes on cryptocurrency transactions, but foreign companies such as Binance and FTX have not done so, so investors will turn to these platforms.
As for whether Binance intends to charge Indian users a transaction tax? A spokesperson for the exchange told the media that the situation is being closely monitored and an announcement will be made in due course.
Among the major cryptocurrency exchanges, only the Binance App seems to have seen an increase in downloads in India compared to the previous month.
Specifically, FTX’s app downloads in India have increased since January, but the trend has turned around after July. According to statistics, the exchange’s app downloads in India in January this year were about 40,000 times; in July, it was close to 96,000 times; in August, it was 52,000 times.
Meanwhile, another cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, saw its app downloads in India drop from nearly 31,000 in June to 16,000 in August.
App downloads for Indian cryptocurrency exchange Coindcx fell to 163,000 in August from 2.2 million in January, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower; app downloads for Wazirx, another Indian cryptocurrency exchange, fell from 2.2 million in January. of 596,000 to 92,000 in August.
