India's War on Cash Increases Bitcoin Adoption

Recently the Indian government banned 500 and 1000 rupee notes in an attempt to curb the black markets and tax evasion. India is a heavy cash based society and lacks the infrastructure for making payments with bank cards.

The ban happened quickly and 500 to 1000 rupee notes were deemed worthless. These cash notes are only worth $7 and $14 USD each and the ban has made it exceedingly difficult for people to pay for things. Many people in India have cash savings and the banks have been overloaded with people trying to change their bills.

War on Cash

Although “corruption” is the governments reasons for banning these notes, it follows a global trend on having a war on cash. Similar moves have been made to eliminate larger bills in Europe and the US. Anytime we see sweeping economic policies affecting multiple jurisdictions simultaneously, we can assume these decisions were made through centralized world powers.

The war on cash is likely a strategy to take absolute control over people’s finances, forcing them to pay the banks another tax through negative interest rates. These types of drastic moves may be the result of a massive global debt bubble on the verge of imploding.

Bitcoin Growth in India Surges

Given the recent events, Indian interest in Bitcoin is starting to grow. Looking at Google trends, we’re seeing an increase over the past month related to bitcoin searches.

Bitcoin businesses are increasing in India, with Unicoin, Zebpay and BTCXIndia being the largest exchanges. Unicoin recently raised $1.5M in funding to expand their operations.

According to Hindustantimes, Zebpay is seeing growth in their user base with 25,000 new customers signing up every month. There may be up to 400,000 bitcoin users in the county and that number will likely grow. Zepay is also looking to raise $4M to boost its marketing and operations.

India has a population of 1.25 billion people which could amplify Bitcoin’s user adoption. India has one of the fastest growing tech industries in the world, and we anticipate that the war on cash may accelerate their crypto ecosystem. There’s a possibility that India will one day become a market mover for bitcoin similar to China.

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Rocky

Rocky is a cryptocurrency analyst, strategic consultant, educator, position trader and investor. He started his journey learning about Bitcoin in 2013, became obsessed with it and dropped everything to work full-time in the space since 2015.