Indian households have an inventory of 25000 plus tonnes of gold. However, of late, cryptocurrencies are treated as digital gold. Investments in crypto has reached $40 billion in 2020 despite outright hostility to this asset class from the authorities.
Crypto is more transparent than gold or property and returns are more in a short period of time. People invest in Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ether and other digital coins. In the US, there are 23 million traders of these assets. In the UK, there are 2.3 million. India is fast catching up. There are more than 15 million Indians who buy and sell digital coins. It is simple to invest in cryptos. You can buy them online. There is no need to verify as you have to when you buy gold.
Had it not been for regulatory uncertainty, there would have been even wider adoption. Many individual investors are silent about their holdings. They could have thought of contingency plans to move trading offshore in case there is ban.
Over a period of time, cryptos are going to be adopted across the countries.