Bitcoin price surges exchanges crash as India lifts two-year cryptocurrency ban
The price of bitcoin has risen sharply and several exchanges have been overloaded after India‘s Supreme Court overturned a ban on cryptocurrency trading.
The ruling quashed an April 2018 order by the country’s central bank that prohibited banks and financial institutions from providing “any service in relation to virtual currencies”.
Bitcoin’s value rose by around 5 per cent following Wednesday’s verdict and has since returned above $9,000 for the first time since last month.
Other cryptocurrencies also received a boost, with ether (Ethereum), XRP (Ripple) and Bitcoin Cash all surging 4-7 per cent in price.
Cryptocurrency businesses and exchanges in the country welcomed the decision, despite some suffering difficulties as a result of their infrastructure being overwhelmed by a sudden increase in demand for their services.
1/8 Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009
On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled ‘Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’
Reuters
2/8 Bitcoin is used as a currency for the first time
On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins – the equivalent of $90 million at today’s prices
Lazlo Hanyecz
3/8 Silk Road opens for business
Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin
4/8 The first bitcoin ATM appears
On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash
REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis
5/8 The fall of MtGox
The world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed
Getty Images
6/8 Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up
In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim
Getty Images
7/8 Bitcoin’s big split
On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash
REUTERS
8/8 Bitcoin’s price sky rockets
Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year
Reuters
1/8 Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009
On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled ‘Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’
Reuters
2/8 Bitcoin is used as a currency for the first time
On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins – the equivalent of $90 million at today’s prices
Lazlo Hanyecz
3/8 Silk Road opens for business
Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin
4/8 The first bitcoin ATM appears
On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash
REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis
5/8 The fall of MtGox
The world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed
Getty Images
6/8 Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up
In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim
Getty Images
7/8 Bitcoin’s big split
On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash
REUTERS
8/8 Bitcoin’s price sky rockets
Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year
Reuters
Leading cryptocurrency exchange ZebPay announced that its servers had shut down due to an overload of new users signing up in the hours after the ban was lifted.
“The volume of members and new members logging into ZebPay right now has exceeded our biggest estimates,” the exchange wrote on Twitter. “Unfortunately, system is down temporarily while we add more resources.”
Sumit Gupta, co-founder and CEO of CoinDCX, described the reversal of the ban as a “historic day, not just for the crypto community, but for the entire country”.
Mr Gupta’s company was one of four cryptocurrency exchanges in the country that petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the two-year ban.
“The removal of the ban by the Supreme Court is going to open new opportunities for India in terms of investments, economic growth, financial inclusion, and market maturation,” he said.
“We have always seen crypto as a potential to unlock India’s dream of becoming a $5 trillion economy and remain committed to carrying out the hard work which is necessary to make this dream come true.”
Indian exchange platform WazirX described the decision as long overdue. “Crypto has won in India,” the firm’s CEO wrote in a blog post. “Very rarely do we, as a nation, get an opportunity to participate in revolutionary technology”.
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