Bitcoin effect: Cryptocurrency exchanges see long queues

BENGALURU: Cryptocurrency exchange platforms in India have a huge backlog of potential users waiting to be verified for registration. Waiting periods have gone up from a week to 20 days. The prices of digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ripple, and Litecoin have surged over the past year, encouraging many to get into the trading of these currencies.

Bengaluru-based Unocoin used to see 1,000 registrations a day in December 2016. Last month, it averaged 10,000 registrations a day. Its overall user base is now close to 10 million. Coinsecure has a message on its website warning users that their KYC (know your customer) process will take time. It is getting around 4,000 registrations a day. The platform has disabled its payment gateway to stop users from paying money before verification. Unocoin, too, has warned users about delays. Others like ZebPay are seeing a similar surge in user registrations and transactions. ZebPay has touched 2 million users.

Jincy Samuel, founder of Coinsecure, said the exchange is not able to manage the load, since it has to verify each user before granting them access. “We have already received huge amounts of funds, and have been pushing notifications that it will take time to complete the eKYCs. We are planning to hire a lot more people (to deal with the surge),” she said.

A person can invest in bitcoins for as low as Rs 1,000. Once one logs into the website of a cryptocurrency exchange platform, the platform verifies the details of the user. The funds are then transferred and a digital wallet is created for the user to store the bitcoins. Currently, the price of one bitcoin is Rs 10 lakh, but at its peak last month, it was being sold for as high as Rs 19 lakh.

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