Binance records increase in Indian traders amid unclear taxes

According to a Bloomberg report published on Wednesday, August 2022 recorded the biggest monthly volume of Binance app downloads ever in India, notably 429,000.

According to data from Sensor Tower, which collects mobile and internet data to give intelligence information to its clients, Binance is the only major exchange whose app downloads increased in August from July, the month when 1% transaction tax in the form of TDS came in.

In India, downloads of the Binance app were three times higher than those of CoinDCX, which decreased from 2.2 million in January to 163,000 for the month. WazirX’s downloads decreased from roughly 596,000 in January to 92,000 in August.

On the other hand, FTX’s numbers dropped to 52,000 in August from 96,000 in July whereas downloads of the Coinbase app decreased from 31,000 in June to 16,000 in August.

Because of the complexity of tax reporting and the April introduction of the 1% transaction tax and 30% gain tax on cryptocurrency, traders stopped using Indian exchanges, which resulted in a 90% reduction in volume.

Given the influx of Indian traders to Binance, it appears that the crypto market has not fully lost out on this. The biggest trading platform in the world by volume did not specify if it is 1% TDS on all transactions as required by the most recent taxation amendment.

While Indian exchanges must comply with tax laws, its global competitors, including Binance and FTX, have not been doing so.

Probe on WazirX 

The increase in downloads comes after one of the major crypto exchange WazirX faced its bank accounts getting frozen by the Enforcement Directorate. Following a rare public argument between WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, traders from India are flocking to Binance. The tax reform and his departure from WazirX appear to have made the exchange giant stand apart.