All your questions about Cryptocurrency trading in India answered
Everyone is interested in trading Cryptocurrency these days and who can blame them? The returns on certain coins like Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple (XRP), IOTA, etc are a whopping double digits in just a matter of hours. I have been trading in Crypto since October. I am not good at it because I fear losing money so I stay satisfied with less profit.
Due to my growing interest in Crypto and being in contact with the founders of new exchanges like Coindelta and Koinex, I now have a new privilege. I help them manage their telegram communities. This is honestly a daunting task because the newbies in Crypto have far too many questions and I am constantly on the phone helping them out. I literally slept just an hour last night.
I am not complaining. Along the way I am learning a lot, sometimes the questions are really tricky, other times it is just a matter of education in the trading world. Anyway, to help myself and to the newbies I am writing down a sort of FAQ about Trading in Cryptocurrencies. This of-course pertains to trading in India with INR. I will write about trading in Crypto with Crypto some other time.
For my ease and yours I will use Zebpay, Koinex and Coindelta as an example. All other are anyway s**t in my opinion.
What's your question? What is KYC and how much time does it take to complete? How to deposit money (INR) in Exchanges? When will your INR withdrawals be credited? Why is my deposit and withdrawal not credited even though it is instant? How to Change the verified Bank account on exchanges How to Buy or Sell Crypto currencies on Order-book exchanges? How to transfer my crypto from one exchange to another? What the hell are altcoins? I only heard of Bitcoin How can I convert from one coin to another? What is Pump and Dump in Cryptocurrency? What are Bitcoin Futures? Why are the fees to Withdraw so high? Where is my private key? Should I keep it safe? Are my funds safe in an exchange? How to pay taxes on Bitcoin profit How do I contact the Exchange support? Do I work for Coindelta or Koinex? I have more questions Telegram Communities Donate to keep this website running
What is KYC and how much time does it take to complete?
Every exchange collects some of your information to validate whether it is really you who will be trading on the exchange. This is done so as to be compliant to the government of India. The KYC aka Know-your-customer completion timings and documents required are different across exchanges. Please follow the website's process to complete your KYC and begin trading. It takes about 2 hours on Coindelta, 1-2 days on Koinex and 1-2 weeks on Zebpay to complete KYC.
How to deposit money (INR) in Exchanges?
Short Answer: All exchanges give you a unique bank account number - Just transfer the money to that account.
Detailed Answer:
Strangely and luckily all 3 exchanges - Koinex, Coindelta and Zebpay use Razorpay to process what they call the "Instant Deposit" so this one is easy.
When you open an account with any of these exchanges they will generate a bank account number for you. It goes something like this RAZRXXXXXXXXXXXX in case of Koinex and Zebpay, and 80808XXXXXXXXXX in case of Coindelta. This is your unique bank account.
This is a unique bank account number on CoinDelta.
Add this account as a beneficiary in your bank. All transfers made to this account will be credited into your INR account on the exchange automatically. So all you need to do to deposit INR into your exchange wallet is to transfer money to your unique account number. That's it.
Note: On Zebpay you need to first create a deposit request using Express transfer, only then you should make the transfer from your bank.
When will your INR withdrawals be credited?
Short Answer: Instantly if less than 2 Lakhs
Detailed Answer:
Both Koinex and Coindelta are giving tremendous customer service in terms of withdrawals and deposits of INR. Case in point - they both allow you to withdraw money 24/7 and the money is sent to your bank account within 2 minutes of approving your withdrawal.
How it works is that there is a system in place that makes your withdrawal through IMPS from exchange's bank account to your bank account when you create a withdrawal request. Hence if your withdrawal request is less than 2 lakh INR, it will be processed using IMPS. The IMPS limit set by RBI is 2 Lakhs only so any withdrawal higher than that will be processed using NEFT.
Koinex offers to explain their withdrawal timelines on the request page
Tip: If you want to withdraw an amount greater than 200000, split it into multiple transactions - each less than 2 Lakhs.
Note: Some exchanges have deposit and withdrawal fees - it is a service fee for the instant service. Zebpay does not yet offer instant withdrawal service.
Why is my deposit and withdrawal not credited even though it is instant?
Short Answer: Blame the bank.
Detailed Answer:
Banks have regular maintenance activities going on on their servers. These causes delays in deposits and withdrawals in most cases. In other cases there could be an issue with Razorpay or the exchange itself which can be sorted by contacting Support. How to contact the Exchange Support?
Note: On Coindelta there is an additional step for withdrawal. After you have entered the OTP and email is sent to you to confirm the withdrawal. If you do not confirm on email, your withdrawal will not be processed
How to Change the verified Bank account on exchanges?
Short Answer: Contact Support
Detailed Answer: Contact Support of respective Exchanges
How to Buy or Sell Crypto currencies on Order-book exchanges?
For this context Koinex and Coindelta are Order-book exchanges. Zebpay is not. You need to buy or sell Bitcoin on Zebpay at their prices. On Order-book exchanges, the users define the order prices.
Short Answer: You can either buy at the available price or place an order with your price quote. Same goes for Sell. The order will be filled when a matching buyer/seller order is found.
Detailed Answer:
The teams at both the exchanges have come up with brilliant tutorial videos, please watch them and follow the instructions:
Koinex:
Coindelta:
How to transfer my crypto from one exchange to another?
Short Answer: Go to wallet, click on withdraw, enter the amount and address of the recipient wallet and click Send/Withdraw.
Detailed Answer:
Whether you want to transfer your coins/tokens to a private wallet or to another exchange or within the same exchange to someone else's account there is just one Simple Process - Withdrawal. All exchanges and wallets offer you a withdrawal service to transfer your crypto. Since Koinex and Coindelta are operating with multiple coins they offer you wallets for each coin/token. Zebpay on the other hand has a simple "Send" button on their app to send Bitcoins.
As I said in the short answer, all you need to do is click withdraw on the wallet you want to withdraw from, enter amount, address of the recipient and click 'Withdraw'.
This is the typical withdrawal screen on Coindelta
Note: Withdrawals are chargeable. Check the fees before you withdraw.
More Info: Once again there are videos for these:
Koinex:
Coindelta:
What the hell are altcoins? I only heard of Bitcoin.
Short Answer: Any crypto currency other than Bitcoin is an altcoin.
Detailed Answer:
Seriously, is the short explanation not enough? My friend Rahul has written an amazing article about trading and pumps and dumps in Altcoins. Read it here.
How can I convert from one coin to another?
There are many ways to do it:
Use exchanges like Bittrex or Binance Here you can use ETH or BTC to buy other Alt coins.
Use Changelly or Shapeshift to exchange any coin to any coin.
What is Pump and Dump?
Short Answer: STAY AWAY FROM IT
Detailed Answer:
Investors buy large quantity of coins at market price. This shows an up-trend on the chart as prices rise for that coin in exchanges. This is called a Pump. Normal traders like us see this trend and jump in to make some profit. As traders buy more and more coins, the prices keep going up. At a certain level (Usually 10-30% profit) the Pumping investors begin selling their stock. They sell the stock at the current high price and make a decent profit. This is called a Dump. The prices some shattering down at this point and normal traders like us are left with expensive coins which now can only be sold for a loss.
This is a very common practice and while there are regulations in place to prevent this from happening in stock market, there are no such regulations on Crypto currency. Many communities on telegram offer Pump and Dump signals and believe me when I say this is coming from Personal experience, most of the time you will be losing money when you follow them.
My friend Rahul has written an article on this check it out
What are Bitcoin Futures?
Short Answer: You bet on the future price of Bitcoin. Long - You profit if prices go up on a specific future date. Short - You profit if prices decrease on a specific future date.
Detailed Answer:
According to Business Insider - Futures, which allow two parties to exchange an asset at a specified price at an agreed upon date in the future, have been around since the late 19th century. Now, I don't feel like dwelling much into it but in markets Futures are contracts you buy or sell without the actual asset.
If I tell Karan I will give him 5 bitcoins for $100,000 on Jan 25th, now whether the price of 5 BTC on Jan 25th is $80,000 or $ 120,000, I have to give him 5 BTC and he will pay me $100,000.
But in trading bitcoins, you are actually just betting on the price. Hence if you buy a BTC contract worth $18,000 today with an expiration of 1 month. You will get what the actual price is on expiration. Pretty much like market.
There are 2 ways to invest. If you think BTC prices will rise in future, you can go long. If you think BTC prices shall fall (I sure hope no) in future, you can go short. So imagine you are betting on bitcoin without actually holding, buying or selling bitcoins. That is why they are so excited about it.
Why are the fees to Withdraw so high?
Short Answer: The fees are pretty industry standard if you ask me but if you trade in Bitcoin and trade in small amounts then you are in for a major Shock.
Detailed Answer:
I have been asked this question a lot of times and sometimes the people have gone out and abused the exchange for charging exorbitant fees. Almost always the complain is about Bitcoin Withdrawal fees. Because people are happy to pay 0.01/0.02 XRP fees in India and doesn't bother to check that Bittrex charges 5 XRP for withdrawal.
Here is why the Bitcoin fees are 0.001 on Koinex and Coindelta:
The Fees are fluctuating based on the blockchain - Exchanges use reference tools to determine the best fees for your transfer. These fees can go above 0.001 or below 0.001 BTC but a constant fee mitigates the risk of heavy losses.
My recent transaction cost the exchange more than double the fees charged to me
The exchanges still haven't moved to Segwit - Without getting more technical, segwit is a new upgrade to blockchain network which can reduce the fees per transaction but the exchanges like Koinex and Coindelta are monitoring it right now. Once they move to Segwit, fees will reduce.
Clubbing of transactions don't happen-You know why Zebpay can afford less fees? Because multiple transactions are packed into one transaction. If you notice your withdrawals from Zebpay, the total of transaction will be close to 10 BTC almost always. Inorder to give you quick service Koinex and Coindelta avoid this clubbing and process your transaction immediately.
A typical Zebpay transfer where upto 10 BTC transactions are clubbed.
Where is my private key? Should I keep it safe?
Short Answer: Crypto exchanges manage your wallet, you do not get a private key in exchanges.
Detailed Answer:
A wallet is where you store your currency. The wallet has 2 keys - Public and Private. A Public key is the address to which someone can transfer the currency to you. Private key is what is used to send transactions. You should always keep your private key safe otherwise someone with access to it can withdraw your funds without your knowledge.
Coming to exchanges - You do not get a private key. Simply because the exchanges handle your funds. If you want to withdraw then exchanges are going to process your withdrawal.
If you wish to have a private key you can get a wallet for yourself and manage it. This is an article I read which can help you get started. Read it here
Are my funds safe in an exchange?
There is no short or long answer to this. The community is divided. Some say it is okay, some say it is not. You should decide yourself what you want to do. In theory Exchanges are protected for attacks so your funds are safe. But if you wish to hold long term, it's better to move your crypto into a private wallet.
How to pay taxes on Bitcoin Profit?
Short Answer: Profit from Bitcoin/any crypto trading is considered short term capital gain, hence you have to pay taxes for the profit as per the income tax slab.
Detailed Answer:
I have never been a fan of beating around the bush and I hate myself for wasting your time in reading this one line. But here is a rather unnecessarily long article about it. I would recommend you guys get a tax professional to fill up your return. If you are earning a lot in crypto, you can afford to pay a consultant.
How do I contact the Exchange support?
Many-a-times the only way to get help is to contact support. Here is how to contact them:
Koinex - Create a ticket at https://koinex.in/support
Coindelta - Contact Live support - There is a 'Need help' button on the bottom right corner of the website (only on desktop version)
Zebpay - Click the top right menu button > Support > Create a ticket
Do I work for Coindelta or Koinex?
I get this question a lot. The answer is NO. Shubham from Coindelta and Rakesh from Koinex are both good friends (I can call them that because I have their phone numbers and I know many would kill for that). They both asked me if I wanted to be the admin of the telegram groups to help them manage the community and I agreed.
Honestly I didn't think I would be needing to help and answer so many questions. I still don't have to but I love helping people and that's why I do it.
I do not get paid for managing the community - I do it voluntarily. But If you do enjoy chatting with me and would like to appreciate my contribution you can do it by donating some crypto to me :)
I have more questions.
Although I have added as many questions as I could there is always an off chance that you have a doubt that this blog cannot solve. You can find me on the telegram communities or reach out to me directly.
Telegram Communities:
Coindelta: https://t.me/coindelta
Koinex (Unofficial): https://t.me/koinexhindi
For Crypto discussion and updates - Indiabits: https://t.me/indiabits
To know the prices across exchanges - Indiabitsbot: https://t.me/indiabitsbot
For Crypto News: https://t.me/BitcoinIndia
Blockchain discussion: https://t.me/blockchainedindia
Donate to keep this website running:
Awww, you guys want to help me run this website. That is so sweet. Thank you very much. You can donate in form of UPI using Google Tez or in Crypto. Here are the addresses:
Google Tez: finallyjobless@okaxis
Bitcoin: 1MgSjRCT2MHWUVuGY4rN3K7sKpLZ6piRt7
Ether or any ERC20 Token: 0x6a2FA84c99Eaa49E368E76518B4992D6e78E7536
Neo: AMBtzmNcqAmQGgS7Ghbr5gAyzPuDxS4Gda
Ripple/XRP: rLdinLq5CJood9wdjY9ZCdgycK8KGevkUj (Tag: 5250256)
Disclaimer: Some of the links are affiliate links which means if you click on them and register I get a commission out of it with no extra cost to you. Crypto currency trade is volatile, trade carefully.