Best Apps for Buying & Selling Bitcoins in India

Cryptocurrencies have been seeing a roller coaster ride in India. It gained popularity back in 2017, when it rose to a considerable extent, until the big crash that started in mid-December of that year. The Indian Crypto Apps were booming in that time, with thousands of people transacting in cryptos, buying and selling them from their real money. And indeed, the Reserve Bank of India had problems with that.

There were specific reasons, but a big reason was taxes, as crypto was a decentralized currency system. A user buying huge assets in cryptocurrencies can easily avoid paying huge fees to the Govt. This will prevent the Govt from catching the big fishes of the crypto industry. Hence, RBI tried to impose a ban over the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies, at least in the white way.

On 6th April 2018, RBI directed all banks that worked with Crypto-companies, to curb all business relationships with them immediately. While this couldn’t stop inter-crypto trading, this surely made it hard to invest in cryptos using real INR money, or even redeem cryptos in INR.

Companies like Zebpay, Binance, etc. approached the Supreme Court and filed a petition against this rule. And finally, after two years of struggling, on 4th March 2020, the Supreme Court struck down the RBI Ban, declaring it unconstitutional and allowed crypto-companies to engage in buying or selling cryptos with Indian currencies.

And it didn’t take much time for the apps to come back up live with Indian currency deposits and withdrawals. In today’s post, we will look at the best apps to buy bitcoins with Indian money and sell bitcoins into Indian cash.

Still haven’t invested in Bitcoins? Don’t know how you can earn from cryptocurrencies? Want to know precisely how Bitcoins and other cryptos work? Read my 5.5k words in-depth Noob’s Guide to Earning Money with Bitcoins. It also includes some great resources helpful for every user. Check it out.

Anyways, let’s proceed. Here’s an overview of the apps we will be discussing today.

KYC Documents required for Buying/Selling Cryptos:

Security is of utmost concern when you are dealing with cryptocurrencies. Hence every app or website listed here requires manual KYC verification.

The first thing you should do after signing up is to verify your KYC. This is because it is a manual process and should take time to complete. Most of the apps take a few hours to confirm, although it might take longer, depending on factors.

Here are the documents you should keep handy:

  • Your ID Proof: Passport works best as Indian ID Proof. You can also use your Aadhar ID or Driving License.
  • Your Address Proof: Your bank statement or credit card statement, canceled cheque, bank passbook, utility bills, etc. will do. If you use a Banking App, you can request e-statement from there.
  • Your Photo: Most apps use your device camera to take an instant photo of you. Some apps also requested me to write my name or date in a white piece of paper and hold it along with my ID Proof, and take a selfie.

If you have these handy, you are good to go.

CoinDCX:

 

CoinDCX: Best Apps for Buying & Selling Bitcoins in India

CoinDCX was one of the first ones to mail me soon after the RBI Ban on Cryptocurrencies was struck down by the Supreme Court of India. They were quick to act and enabled transactions with INR soon after the ban was over.

CoinDCX is a fully-fledged crypto marketplace where you can invest in cryptos, and buy, sell, and trade within them. It also has some other sub-products with some additional features.

  • DCX Trade: For Trading cryptos usually.
  • DCX Margin: Trading cryptos with 6x Leverage across 250+ Markets.
  • DCX Insta: Fastest way to buy/sell cryptos.
  • DCX Lend: Earn money by lending your cryptos. (Upto 20% interest per annum)
  • DCX Futures: Leverage up to 20x with Crypto futures.
  • DCX Convert: Real-time Crypto price converter.

Good News! CoinDCX is running a #TryCrypto movement where you can get Rs1000 worth of Free Cryptocurrency by just depositing Rs500. That’s double the benefit. Just follow the simple steps given below to redeem your free money.

  1. Signup for CoinDCX using our unique link.
  2. Verify your KYC after joining.
  3. Deposit a minimum of Rs500 to your CoinDCX Wallet.
  4. As soon as the transaction is processed, you will get Rs500+Rs500 extra added to your Wallet.
  5. Buy Bitcoins or any other cryptocurrency you want with your money. You can redeem them anytime to your bank.

Invest Rs500 and Get Rs1000 with CoinDCX

Paxful:

Paxful: Best Apps for Buying & Selling Bitcoins in India

Paxful is different from all other platforms listed here because it acts like a marketplace where you can buy or sell or trade cryptocurrencies with other users directly. So, you will get to compare and choose the buyer/seller that offers better rates.

It supports a wide range of payment modes, including Direct Bank Transfer, IMPS, UPI, and also Mobile Wallets such as PayTM, Google Pay, and PhonePe. It also supports international credit and debit cards. (VISA)

This is an excellent choice for those who engage in frequent buying or selling bitcoins. You don’t need to use your bank account all the time. You can use your mobile wallets in a hassle-free way. Globally, Paxful supports 300+ payment options. It is a giant.

There are a lot of sellers inside Paxful, and you might get a cheaper trading deal here than other places. So, you should check it out.

Last but not the list, my ID verification here took just 2 minutes. (No, it was not instant auto verification, it was a manual one). So, you can get started here pretty quick.

Join Paxful

WazirX:

WazirX: Best Apps for Buying & Selling Bitcoins in India

WazirX is an excellent alternative to CoinDCX, due to its user-friendly interface, and their partnership with Binance globally. Although both Binance and WazirX work in India, only WazirX supports INR deposits from and withdrawals to Indian Banks.

WazirX suffered from ill fate when RBI banned cryptocurrencies just within one month of its launch. In the meantime, they got acquired by Binance, to sustain their market. However, the things are back again in good shape after the lifting of the ban, and you can surely start to buy/sell and trading from WazirX.

Currently, WazirX supports 80+ cryptocurrencies, including all your popular ones. It charges a flat 0.2% low trading fee, which is useful for frequent traders. Further, if you decide to pay using their WRX coins, you will get flat 50% off on the trading fee, which means you can trade at a 0.1% flat rate.

Join WazirX

Cex.io:

Cex.io: Best Apps for Buying & Selling Bitcoins in India

Cex.io is in our list because of one reason: It allows you to buy bitcoins using your Credit Cards! Yay! So, it remains unaffected by Govt. Laws. If you own an international credit or debit card, then you can use Cex.io to buy cryptos. It bypasses the secondary step of adding local currency to Wallet and then trading it for cryptos. Instead, it directly gets you cryptos.

Out of all other options listed in this post to buy/sell cryptos, Cex.io has the most complex verification process ever. It has four layers of verification, of which you need at least two levels of confirmation to be able to deposit and withdraw funds to your Indian bank account. Your withdrawals will be done via SWIFT International Bank Transfer and show as an inward remittance in your bank account.

Cex.io supports only around 20 cryptos currently, and you can purchase in USD, EUR, GBP, and RUB. If you use your international card, it will show up as a foreign transaction in the respective currency. Please note that, apart from the regular Bitcoin Transaction Fees, your total amount will be converted to INR and charged from your bank, which might be a bit more than the usual exchange rates.

Join Cex.io

Zebpay:

Zebpay: Best Apps for Buying & Selling Bitcoins in India

Zebpay is one of the oldest crypto exchanges of India, founded back in 2015. It had quite a great run even before the RBI ban on cryptocurrencies. It started with only buying and selling Bitcoins, and now supports many other cryptos.

The minimum deposit and withdrawal amount are Rs1000 and Rs500, respectively. Each withdrawal will incur Rs10 processing fees.

The reason why I listed this below here is that you will be charged 0.001BTC monthly to keep your account active. At the time of writing this post (15th March), this translates to Rs40. While other exchanges are offering free accounts, Zebpay is charging users. This is weird. For this reason, I won’t necessarily ask you to go with Zebpay.

Nevertheless, Zebpay is still as trusted as earlier, and I always used Zebpay for all my crypto transactions before the RBI Ban.

Join Zebpay

LocalBitcoins:

LocalBitcoins: Best Apps for Buying & Selling Bitcoins in India

LocalBitcoins is similar to Paxful, although it does not have as many features. It is like an OLX platform where you can manually deal with real people around you (although online, not offline), to buy Bitcoins. You pay the sellers in their bank account, via UPI or Bank Transfer, or even Wallets like PayTM, and you get your Bitcoins transferred to your Bitcoin wallet.

This platform is popular as it has much lesser trading transaction fees than the fees on other sites. Also, you might be lucky to find out sellers at lower rates than other places. All in all, you will be in profit. You can check seller ratings to search for your desired seller.

Please note that you can only buy or sell Bitcoins using this platform. No other cryptocurrencies are supported. Check it out below.

LocalBitcoins

Join our Crypto FB Group:

We have a dedicated Facebook Group named ‘CryptoHub: Bitcoin and Altcoin Assistant’ where we talk about Cryptocurrencies. You can join there and post your queries. If you are a crypto expert, you can also share your two cents over there. It will help the community a lot. Click the button below to join the group.

CryptoHub: Bitcoin and Altcoin Assistant

Last Words:

Well, that’s the end of our extensive list of available options for buying and selling bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies using INR. If you have some more in mind, let me know, and I will add them to this list. Just comment below, and I will take note.

If you have any further queries regarding these apps, you can feel free to ask me. I will try my best to help you out. And do share this article with your friends. Its influencers like you who help us to increase our exposure and reach new friends.

Thank you again for reading until the end. If you haven’t read my previous two guides on Bitcoins, make sure you go through them.

Well, that’s the end for now. I will be back soon with another informative article on cryptos. Till then, stay tuned!

Nirmal Sarkar
Nirmal Sarkar

Nirmal Sarkar is a Biotechnologist from the city of Joy, Kolkata. He is the founder of this blog and covers a wide range of topics from Gadgets to Software to Latest Offers. You can get in touch with him via nirmal@hitricks.com

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