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STORY: Engineer Sagar Neware never used to pay much attention to things like Bitcoin. Now he says trading cryptocurrencies is taking over his life. The 25-year old Indian says he spends his nights monitoring prices, since crypto markets never shut. And he’s far from unusual. As job creation and incomes lag growth in the country, more young Indians are turning to crypto to supplement their money. Trading of Bitcoin and other tokens on India’s four main exchanges rose more than two-fold over the October-December quarter. That’s according to data from CoinGecko. Most of the gains have been driven by retail investors in smaller towns. Here in the western city of Nagpur, these young people have signed up for classes to hone their trading skills. Academy owner Yash Jaiswal says it’s about topping up low incomes, not getting rich quick: “The job which we are doing have very low pay scale. So, one who is working under a certain pay scale, would want to definitely support his family. Nobody wants to drive a BMW, trust me. The majority of the people, they just want a small car. They just want a happy life.”Many experts warn that crypto markets remain very volatile, and a risky place to park your cash. But that doesn’t deter students like Ashish Nagose. He says he already has a business selling flowers, and can trade crypto as a sideline. Now India’s cryptocurrency market is forecast to grow to over $15 billion by 2025 - or about six times last year’s figure. But the country’s budding traders will have to navigate some complications. India levies high taxes on crypto trading gains, and has set no new rules for the market, nor folded it under existing securities laws. Meanwhile the country's central bank is still a strong skeptic about the whole idea. If that creates uncertainty, none of it seems to put off India’s new generation of crypto fans.
