Investing in cryptocurrencies from India and US

A lot of my friends have been asking me about investing in cryptocurrencies of late. I have refrained myself from making any suggestions considering the volatility of the markets and the way new investors are throwing their money at cryptocurrencies. I know at-least a dozen people who invested during the bull run last December. Most of them invested in Ripple looking at the crazy returns. Today Ripple is down more than 80% from its All Time High. So let me start with a disclaimer. This is not an investment advice. I am just sharing the information so that you can make an informed choice regarding whether you want to invest or not and how much you need to invest.

Please read my previous article https://readmedium.com/10-things-to-know-before-investing-in-cryptocurrencies-ab8caac28a74 before continuing further.

Buying Bitcoin and AltCoins using INR

1. Zebpay : There is no Website. It is app only. It is one of the most popular and trustable apps. It currently supports Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. They might slowly add other altcoins as well. If you want a simple safe option you can stick to Zebpay. KYC approval might take a little longer. If you are using Zebpay and you are not able to see the Litecoin and Bitcoincash options checkout the steps from https://blog.zebpay.com/introducing-litecoin-on-zebpay-83beb41e291f
2. BitXOXO : Gets the job done. Not very popular. But hassle free and super fast KYC approvals. Supports only Bitcoin. They have a simple set of FAQs which will answer many of your questions before investing.
3. Koinex : Currently it has the largest set of Altocoins that can be bought from the website. They currently support Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin andRipple. Of late they have been having issues with Deposits and withdrawals. So check before going further. I have not used koinex much as their KYC approval took long and I didn’t bother to check back.
4. Wazir : This is the latest kid on the Indian block. It is backed by a good team. I have just submitted my KYC and waiting for the approval to take it for a spin.

Buying Bitcoins and AltCoins using USD

1. Coinbase: One of the firsts and the most used exchange amongst the non-techies and general public in US. They support Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether and Litcoin. The news of Coinbase adding support to Bitcoin Cash took the prices of Bitcoin Cash to the moon. So you know the size and importance of this exchange.
2. CEX.IO: This is the easiest and most hassle free route for investing in Bitcoin. The charges are a little high. So if you prefer ease of use/purchase over save a few bucks you can use this option.

International Exchanges for Trading Altcoins

Once you have acquired any of these popular currencies like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash or Ether you can transfer them to one of these exchanges and start trading so that you can buy/sell any of your favourite altcoin.

1. Binance : This is my favorite exchange as of now. They have a very good UI on the website. They have a working app. Their filtering process for listing coins on the exchange is good. If you own BNB coins your trading charges will be halved. I have observed that coins listed on Binance generally perform better when compared to coins across the other exchanges. I know that this is a generalization and may not be always true. But I have observed this couple of times.
2. Kucoin : This is my second favorite exchange. Currently they do not have an app and their trading terminal doesn’t have stop losses feature. Once they add these two it will move to the top of my list amongst the centralised exchanges. A lot of their profit is shared with the end users in the form of referral bonuses and dividends for holding Kucoin Shares(KCS). They have plans for becoming a decentralised exchange over the time which instills more confidence. Kucoin also lists popular ICOs on their exchange very quickly which can be a life save if you couldn’t participate in an ICO.
3. Bitrex : Bitrex has a wide range of coins listed and is my favorite amongst the old lot. I would suggest skipping Poloni Exchange completely.

If you want to know about my preferences regarding exchanges check out my detailed article https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@gokulnk/in-search-of-the-perfect-distributed-exchange

Bank accounts

This might sound crazy but yet it matters. I lost the opportunity to invest in two dips because Citibank was not a supported bank on the gateways on two of these exchanges.

To check the list of supported bank visit PayUmoney payment page. (Don’t complete the transaction :P I just generated this link so that you can check the list of supported banks)

If possible create accounts of Axis and Airtel Money. They might come handy sometime.

Don’t be lazy

Due to lack of clarity regarding the regulations INR deposits are disabled in many Indian exchanges. Due to high surge in the traffic and new applications many of the international exchanges have disabled new account creation. So kindly create accounts when the registrations are open, get your KYCs approved as soon as possible and make your deposits when you are ready. Do not wait till the last minute of investing.

Finish all the procedure and keep it ready so that you can invest whenever you make up your mind. I know that it seems like a lot of work. That is the reason I have kept the list very minimal. I will make a detailed post with all the available options next week.