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India to see Bitcoin and Blockchain Remittance from New Partnership

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:51 PM
Samburaj Das
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:51 PM

A new partnership between Indian bitcoin exchange Coinsecure and global money transfer platform OKLink – a spinoff of Chinese bitcoin exchange OKCoin – will see digital currency and fiat remittances to Indians using blockchain technology.

Indian citizens will soon be able to send or receive funds in bitcoin and the local fiat Indian rupee from countries around the globe via a newly developed blockchain remittance platform.

The blockchain-remittance offering is expected to bring fees from an industry average of 3%-5% down to a relatively modest 0.5%.

India is the largest receiver of remittances in the world, with the World Bank  pointing to an estimated $72 billion in 2015. That’s over 12% of the world’s entire remittance total, last year. Evidently, there is plenty of reason for bitcoin remittance and cheaper transfer over blockchain, to succeed in the country.

In an announcement from the recently concluded International Money Transfer & Payment ASIA Conference in New Delhi, India, executives from Indian bitcoin exchange Coinsecure and newly developed global money transfer network OKLink forged the new partnership to bring blockchain remittance to the country.

Mohit Kalra, co-founder and CEO of Coinsecure stated:

Remittance will work over the network created by OKCoin called OKLink. It will enable Indian citizens to send or receive funds either in Bitcoin or Indian Rupees from countries around the globe such as China, Hong Kong, Korea, Canada, Philippines and many more.

India Bitcoin dial

The newly created blockchain platform, OKLink, will facilitate remittances while Coinsecure aims to plug Indian citizens to the service on its website and its mobile applications. The two companies state that the goal is to provide the lowest fee in the entire remittance industry, made possible due to the blockchain platform.

They estimate fees to drop from the industry average of 3-5% to a relatively mere 0.5%.

Earlier this year in April, Coinsecure announced that it had raised $1.2 million as a part of its Series A investment round and is among the leading bitcoin platforms in India, with monthly trading volumes exceeding 3000 BTC and increasing since the launch of the bitcoin exchange in January 2015.

Its partner in the current Indian venture, OKLink, is a venture capital backed startup that has raised $10 million so far. While OKLink currently offers payouts in five countries, all in Asia, the startup estimates a presence in 60 countries by the year’s end. OKLink’s sister company, also runs OKCoin, the largest digital currency exchange in the world.

Images iStock/Todor Tsvetkov and Shutterstock.