Crypto ‘superpower?’ India’s young investors prefer bitcoin to gold and ‘boring’ stocks

Crypto ‘superpower?’ India’s young investors prefer bitcoin to gold and ‘boring’ stocks

New Delhi (CNN Business) – Indian businesswoman Swati Daga first bought bitcoin in 2017, when the cryptocurrency was trading well under $3,000. Her decision to invest in digital currencies was met with wariness by her family, she recalls.

“The elders in my family told me not to throw my money away,” said Daga, who runs a food business near New Delhi.

But the 33-year-old hasn’t regretted her decision — bitcoin’s value has increased 15 times since then — and she continues to invest as much as 10% of her savings in cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ethereum.

“I find stock markets boring,” she told CNN Business, adding that she enjoys the “thrill” and “recklessness” that comes with investing in volatile currencies.

She is not the only one.

India has seen a huge boom in cryptocurrency trading since the start of the pandemic, even though authorities in Asia’s third largest economy have for years expressed concerns about digital currencies, and even flirted with banning them. Entrepreneurs in the industry told CNN Business that the country has the potential to become a crypto superpower, since it is one of the hottest internet markets in the world, with 750 million users, and hundreds of millions more yet to come