Topic: How do you convert your BTC and cryptos to INR (Read 337 times)

LBC and Paxful are more of a similar trading platform where you need to pass mandatory KYC verification to trade. I passed 10K KYC level with Aadhaar and selfie verification if I am not wrong and that is enough since I am not a trader and will convert only once in a while. Why I did choose the platform is that we can receive funds from another user from India so that there won't be any indication that its from crypto so can get away with 30% tax but obviously it will work only if we have other sources of income to cover that in our returns.

LBC closed a long time ago but many community members are not aware of this news. Furthermore, to trade on LBC you would need to pass KYC when it existed. I had created an account there but never did any trade as it was asking for me to pass KYC. I have not used Paxful, I am not aware of how it works but I have heard a lot about it. I am not sure whether they still allow P2P trade without KYC.

LBC is not in operation anymore, so if you are not aware it then don't fall for any clone sites of LBC.

Paxful is good and you can find traders which offers third party conversion, no TDS deduction, higher price than the market price, but you can also see lot of offers with 20% over market and not registered from Indian IP those are mostly sending funds from hacked bank accounts so please be very careful or you will find your account to be frozen someday.

They offer fast conversion for small amounts without the need for full KYC verification; a simple phone number verification is enough. I don't use them regularly because their fees are higher than those centralized p2p exchanges. I turned to them in the past when my Binance account was got blocked, and I had no alternative but to open and verify another exchange account.
so to save time I used local exchanges, for not much just 3-4 conversion.

You said you use local exchanges to convert to inr, any specific reason to choose local exchanges over the options you mentioned above?  I use colodax myself but rates are low, p2p exchanges are risky in my experience so I avoid them.

1. P2P exchanges like paxful, local bitcoins.
2. Selling your crypto on centralised exchanges by p2p
3. Some users exchange crypto to fiat here on currency exchange board.
4. You can send crypto on payeer and convert it into USD which take 0.5% fee then transfer to bank account.
5. There some some small sites which operated by a real human they take payeer, perfect money, etc and send INR to bank account.

Buying gift cards is known by most of us. Other than that I am aware of F2F transfer but they only work when the amount is $500 or more. West Union transfer is another option as few P2P vendors on international exchanges provide. That is for sure not cheap but some users prefer it and which is why P2P vendors offer it. Anything else you would like to add @cafter.

Except buying gift cards, show your ways?

I convert my cryptocurrencies, especially altcoins, into regular money using local exchanges. These local exchanges accept cryptocurrencies and help me get Indian Rupees (INR) through UPI or bank transfers.

Just to be clear, these local exchanges are like smaller websites. Like a real human sends INR through his bank account.

I also know different ways to change my cryptocurrencies into regular money as cheaply as possible.

KYC on the international exchanges is a complete skin-crawl moment as soon as you hear it. I have been watching as some of them are setting up bases in India too but eventually moving away in a short span of 2-3 years. This reduces the number of competitive exchanges on the field and allows the government to come up with shitty tax regimens.

Maybe a lot of factors are involved here, that we are unable to fathom, but its better not to sell at this point if you fiat income is enough to cover your costs of daily. That 30% "loss" we can incur, could possibly change in future.

Have been holding for long, why not a little longer?

I generally do not convert my BTC to INR unless I am short of cash. Today you can clearly see that Bitcoin pumped more than 13 percent because of some positive news. This is how Bitcoin holders get benefits in the long term. I have only used WazirX a few times and that is the only exchange I plan to use in the future if the need to sell my Bitcoin arises. I haven't tried any International exchanges and do not plan to use it in the future as most now want their users to pass KYC.

Before the Indian government had implemented tax on crypto gains I was using three exchanges for multiple reasons. Some of them had the pair that I wanted to trade some of them had less fee or zero fee for INR withdrawals and some of them provided higher conversion rates. After the tax laws came into effect I stopped using all three and shifted to an International exchange that provided P2P services but did not ask for KYC. I am still using that exchange and recently I found out about P2PX exchange. I am planning to shift my base from the existing International exchange to it or might use both as per my requirement.

The purpose of this thread is to find an efficient way to convert BTC to INR and eventually, at some point, we convert them for some reasons. I do know that bitcoin is highly valuable and I am not suggesting anyone sell their BTC for INR however I asked them to share their way of conversion so that others can find the information can be valuable.

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@SaShiRaJaVu, I used wazirx exchange multiple times and everytime the trades went smooth but yeah every exchange operating under India probably sending the reports to tax officials.

@libert19, Never knew the existence of exchange thanks for sharing it, I will check it too.

@bitnote, Please share the name of those p2p platforms which has zero fee, cause exchange without trading fee seems too good to be true.

@Bitcoin Smith, Thanks for sharing it, but the only reason I am not using p2p platforms is due to the existence of fraudsters.

@TheUltraElite, 30% tax rate is one the capital gains and only applicable if we cross the income tax slab but as far as I know I didn't convert that much apart from a few thousand once in a few months.

@cafter, Gift card comes with lot of hidden fees though but I never used it and I feel its better to use debit cards instead of prepaid card.

@avikz, Good to know that you are being a HODLer.

@pawanjain, Bitcoin is money too and the purpose of money is to be spent for our needs so if someone is not willing to spend their money even if its indeed then it doesn't sound like a wise choice.

@erikalui, haven't heard this exchange too and this is why I created it to know how fellow community members are trading. As I said gift cards comes with fees 800 seems to be a lot if someone is only converting a small amount so I guess its not really a suitable way of converting BTC.

I still trust Unocoin only as it's easy for me and have been using it since 6 years. The fee is not an issue but I wish there are more exchange websites for Indians to spend BTC directly instead of converting it. I purchased gift cards earlier from Bitrefill but it was damn expensive (almost 800 in fees) and not worth the price I paid for it.

Everyone has the right to speak whatever they want. You shouldn't verbally abuse anyone for sharing information and OP is just sharing what he knows.
Besides that, one shouldn't keep holding an asset forever because if you don't take profits or use your coins for something then your coins are as good as zero.
The point is that if your bitcoins stay in your wallet for like forever then they are of zero value.

Encouraging bitcoin adoption is a good thing as you say it yourself but when you come to think of it, you will have to use your bitcoins for making payments and exchange to other assets.
So exploring options to do it isn't a bad idea but holding bitcoins forever is.

The grocery chain I that I buy my stuff from, I buy their gift card which comes in predermined amounts on Bitrefill, and then I redeem them on the grocery site. However the gift card "availability" also varies and often they are unable to provide my with giftcards with reasons "out of stock". Then I just wait it out, top up my bitrefill account and set up an email notification to notify me once those card are "back in stock".

But such incidents have reduced in frequency recently.

I hope that clears your confusion.

Honestly I have stopped converting my cryptos to fiat completely. I am just not ready to pay 30% taxes. It's just too much and doesn't make any sense at all.

I still miss LBC exchange. They were doing great so not really sure why they had decided to close the business. I would never prefer to use any Indian exchange unless I have a sheer emergency. India needs a proper framework on crypto taxation.

Where do you buy your GCs that they get out of stock? Or am I misunderstanding?

I have been using them on a single merchant at a limited value per month. For that purpose I think this is a good option. Monthly I top up the account and then buy it whenever they are in stock.

Also I dont sell them but use them only for my person use so I did not face any drawback in this case. You could say that one problem is that stocks get cleaned up very quickly though.

Gift cards have limits. You can’t buy them for a lot of money, so you can’t get a large gift card. Selling gift cards can also be difficult.
Most platforms charge a fee, usually around 5% of a gift card’s value. This makes selling gift cards less profitable when you’re looking to cash in on them.