Indian Crypto Exchanges Flooded With INR Deposits and New Users After Elon Musk's Tesla Revealed Bitcoin Purchase

Indian crypto exchanges have been experiencing a flood of INR deposits and surging trading volumes since it was revealed that Elon Musk’s Tesla purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. The positive sentiment swept the Indian crypto industry despite the uncertainty of the cryptocurrency bill that may soon be introduced in parliament.

INR Deposits and Trading Volumes Spiked After Tesla’s Bitcoin Buy News

Indian cryptocurrency exchanges experienced high deposit volumes on Monday after Elon Musk’s Tesla revealed that it bought bitcoin. According to the company’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Tesla put $1.5 billion into bitcoin in January and expects to accept payment in the cryptocurrency for its products and services in the near future.

The move caused a massive inflow of orders on cryptocurrency exchanges in India and globally. Sathvik Vishwanath, the CEO of Unocoin, a major Indian crypto exchange, told news.Bitcoin.com Tuesday:

We have seen a sudden uptick in INR deposits and BTC trading volumes on Unocoin since Tesla announcement. The markets in India were not reacting so quickly before, so this should be a very strong trigger this time.

“The INR deposits have more than doubled since the last 18 hours. The number of new registrations in the same time span is what we generally see in a week,” he further shared.

Another major Indian crypto exchange, Wazirx, saw a similar trend after the Tesla news broke. CEO Nischal Shetty told news.Bitcoin.com: “We saw 3x more deposits in the first few hours compared to other days. Deposits have been on an upward trend ever since.”

Cryptocurrency exchanges outside of India also experienced high volumes after Tesla’s news, including Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken. A spokesperson for Kraken told Reuters: “The recent run-up far exceeded anticipated increases in demand, up over five-fold from previous all-time highs.”

On the regulatory front, the Indian government is preparing to introduce the crypto bill that may ban cryptocurrencies while creating a regulatory framework for the digital rupee to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Amid reports that the government may fast-track this bill, the central bank says it will soon announce the decision regarding the central bank digital currency. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency industry in India has launched a campaign to convince the government to not ban cryptocurrency.

Then on Tuesday, the finance ministry revealed in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India’s parliament, that the bill is actually being finalized and will soon be sent to the Cabinet.