International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
ResearchGate Impact Factor (2018): 0.28 | SJIF (2019): 7.583
A Comparative Study on Top Five Digital
Currencies in India: Cryptocurrencies
Ayub Ahamed K S1, Abrar Hussain2
1
MBA, Mcom, Assistant Prof. RR Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
2
MBA, UGC (NET), Assistant Prof. RR Institute of Advanced Studies Bangalore, India
Abstract: This paper aims to compare top 5 cryptocurrencies available in India based on the market capitalization rate. It also focuses
on the pros and cons of each category of cryptocurrencies and preference for one particular Cryptocurrency over the other. The paper
also focuses on various characteristic feature of the five cryptocurrencies has highlighted that each Cryptocurrency is technically
different as well as significantly different in terms of speed transaction. The study also aims to highlight on the risk and return of
cryptocurrencies.
Keywords: Cryptocurrencies, Risk, Returns
1. Introduction own transaction of everyone else. The digital transaction
recording known as ledger and this ledger publicly available
Cryptocurrencies is an electronic money created with to everyone. With this public ledger transaction, become
technology controlling its creation and promoting efficient, permanent, secure and transparent.
transaction, while hiding the identity of its user. Crypto- is
short for “cryptography”, and cryptography is computer Cryptocurrencies transact with Block chain technology,
technology used for security, hiding information, identities block chain technology is that enables the existence of
and more. Currency simply means money for transaction. cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is the name of the best-known
Cryptocurrency the one for the block chain technology was
Cryptocurrencies are a digital cash designed to be quicker, invented. A block chain technology is a decentralized ledger
cheaper and more reliable than government issued money. of all transaction across a peer-to-peer network. Using this
Intend of trusting a government to create your money and technology, participants can confirm transaction with a need
bank to store, send and receive it, users transact directly with for a central clearing authority. The block chain has its own
each other and store their money each other. Because people pro’s and con’s when we discuss about pros of block chain
send money directly without middleman, transaction usually technology are, Increased transparency, Accurate tracking,
very affordable and fast. Permanent ledger and Cost reduction and we discuss about
cons Complex technology, Regulatory implication,
To prevent fraud and manipulation, every user of implementation challenges and Competing platforms.
Cryptocurrency can simultaneously record and verify their
Source: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/financial-services/fintech/bitcoin-blockchain-cryptocurrency.html
The top 5 cryptocurrencies is consider according to market study their features namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple,
capitalization in this study to compare their performance and Bitcoin cash and Bitcoin SV.
Volume 9 Issue 5, May 2020
www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR20526163810 DOI: 10.21275/SR20526163810 1754
International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
ResearchGate Impact Factor (2018): 0.28 | SJIF (2019): 7.583
Table 1: Ranking of the 5 Cryptocurrencies Based on being as new and revolutionary as it is, predicting the five
Market Capitalization year projected value of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin
S Crypto- requires numerous factors to be considered. Through a
Supply Price Market capitalization
No currencies combination of qualitative research conducted it can be
$183,282,155,039 concluded that Bitcoin can leverage its existing uses base
1 Bitcoin 21 Million $10,078.22
Rs. 13,074,630,341,023.43 and proven use case it likely to experience more growth in
$24,692,528,559 the five year time hrizon by analysis author suggest that
2 Ethereum 109 Million $225.22
Rs 1,761,241,934,092.32 litecoin can be preferred as new investment option.
$12,162,683,824
3 Ripple 100 Billion $0.2783
Rs. 867,462,332,089.09
Dr. Anil Kumar (2019)
$6,400,436,463
4 Tether 7.51 Billion $ 1.00
Rs. 482653713456.60
In this research paper A study on opportunities and
Bitcoin $8,116,120,796 challenges of Cryptocurrency in India with special reference
5 21 Million $444.22 to Bitcoin. The aim of this paper it to know the working of
cash Rs.578,820,304,548.08
Source: www.coingecko.com US $ 1= Rs. 71.32 Cryptocurrency to understand the pro’s and con’s and
analysis the legal status, challenges and opportunities of
Bitcoin in India. It his conclusion cryptocurrencies can bring
2. Review of Literature more positive change to E-Business and E-Payment sector.
However cryptocurrencies doesn’t get the most of trust yet.
Mr. Peter D De Vries (2016)
Many concerns, challenges and issues are existing in many
In his publication of the research paper is on The concept of
Cryptocurrency platform until Cryptocurrency is being well
an Analysis of Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and the future. A
regulated and controlled users need to take extra precautions
SWOT analysis of Bitcoin is presented, which illuminates
of using such virtual money.
some of the recent events and movements that could
influence Cryptocurrency seems to have move past the early
adaption phase that new technologies experience. Bitcoin 3. Research Methodology
has begun to carve itself a niche market, which could help
advance cryptocurrencies further into becoming main The present study is focus on the Descriptive research and
stream, or be the main cause of it falling. Cryprocurrencies also based on the secondary data collection form the
are still in their infancy, and it is difficult to see if they will coingeckon, crypto compare and money control reports and
ever find true main stream presence in world market. its websites. The Cryptocurrencies information selected
through the availability of data for last five year to study the
Mr. Shailak Jain (2018) return of different cryptocurrencies according convenience
The paper is on, The growth of Cryptocurrency in India. Its of the researcher and it called as convenience sampling.
Challenges and potential Impact on Legislation. This paper
investigates the user’s exceptions of the future of Objective of the study:
Cryptocurrency. It also explores the user’s confidence of 1) To study the features of top five cryptocurrencies
dealing with Cryptocurrency in a time that using such virtual selected on the bases of market capitalization.
money is not fully controlled and regulated. Besides, the 2) To study the comparative analysis of top five
paper is aimed to measure the spread of Cryptocurrency use cryptocurrencies for 6 Months.
to have a clear picture from the practical view. The paper
also analyses the way in which 21 different countries have History and Features of top five cryptocurrencies
respond in terms of regulations and legislations towards
cryptocurrencies to develop a clear picture of its impact on 1) Bitcoin
various laws in India in order to regulate. One of the biggest financial stories of the past year has been
the incredible raise of bitcoin. The virtual currency was
Dr. Arvind Kumarsigh (2018) designed to revolutionize peer-to-peer transactions.
In his Research paper cryptocurency in India- Its effects and Although bitcoin was the first established cryptocurrency,
future on economy with special reference to Bitcoin the there has been previous attempts at creating online
main objective of his paper is to understand the future of currencies with ledgers secured by encryption. Two example
cryprocurrency in India, to evaluate the perception of bitcoin of these were B-money and Bit gold, which were formulated
as the future currency and to analyse the probability of but never fully developed. In the year 2008, a paper called
legalization of Bitcoin in stages is predicted. In fact, India’s Bitcoin A Peer to Peer Electronic cash system was posted in
Bitcoin industry has long tried to popularize Bitcoin with internet on cryptography. In 2009, the Bitcoin software is
strategies that includes conducting security checks, made available to the public for the first time and mining the
requesting identification from users such as government process through which new Bitcoins are created and
verified address documents, PAN or Addhar Id’s and transaction are recorded and verified on the block chain
sometimes even checking bank details. begins. First time value for the Bitcoin was as it had never
been traded, only mined, it was impossible to assign a
Jaysinf Bhosale (2018) monetary value to the unit of emergency cryptocurrency. In
In this research paper focuses on the Volatility of selected 2010, someone decided to sell their for the first time
Cryptocurrencies: A comparison of Bitcoin, Ethereum and swapping 10,000 of them for two pizzas.
Litecoin with respect to their volatility and stability in recent
times and also tries to understand their trends in recent
times. With the advent of block chain and cryptocurrencies
Volume 9 Issue 5, May 2020
www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR20526163810 DOI: 10.21275/SR20526163810 1755
International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
ResearchGate Impact Factor (2018): 0.28 | SJIF (2019): 7.583
2) Ethereum cash is third fork of bitcoin, the original Bitcoin block and
Vitalik Buterin 2013 initially developed the concept. It came an upper block size limit of 8 MB.
about a result of his work and research into the Bitcoin
community. He initially published the Ethereum white Bitcoin cash is peer to peer electronic cash for the internet. It
paper, describing the technical design of Ethereum and the is fully decentralized, with no trusted third parties to operate.
Protocol. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said, I It is done by design because the primary motivation of
thought (those in the Bitcoin Community) were not bitcoin cash existence depends solely on carrying out more
approaching the problem in the right way. To put it simply transaction.
the goal of Ethereum is to use a block chain, which will
replace the third paties, including those that store data, Bitcoin cash (BCH) is lot like Bitcoin but has some very
transfer mortgages and keep a track of complex financial noticeable difference are as follows:
instruments. Smart contract are the primary feature of The block size is 8 MB.
Ethereum and self-executing programs that facilitate the It won’t have segwit.
exchange of anything of value on the network, immutably It won’t have the replace by fee feature.
stored on the block chain. They execute when specific It won’t have replay and wipeout protection.
conditions are met and are outside the influence of third It offers a way to adjust the proof of work difficulty
parties or censorship and no downtime, as long as the quicker than the normal 2016 block difficulty adjustment
Ethereum network is functioning. Thie general ambition of interval found in Bitcoin.
the project outlined in the white paper as well as technical
expertise of its young founder attracted the attention of Bitcoin was introduced by an unknown man/woman/group
many in the cryptocurrency space. The platform’s core going by the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto in their, now
innovation became known as the “Ethereum Virtual legendary, research paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer
Machine” and is turning- complete software that runs on the Electronic Cash System”. What bitcoin provided was a peer-
Ethereum network, enabling anyone to run any program, to-peer decentralized, digital currency system. The entire
regardless of the programming language, on the Ethereum system of bitcoin functions due to the work done by a group
block chain. of people called “miners”.
3) Ripple So what do these miners do? The two biggest activities that
Evidently, Ripple has developed to become one of the they do are:
success stories in the crypto market, with several significant Mining for blocks.
partnerships, developments and a large community behind it. Adding transactions to the blocks.
Ripple was launched by Jed Mc Caleb, Christ -Larsen and
Aruthur Britto back in 2012, and in less than 6 years, the plat
5) Tether
form has grown and managed to establish itself as a major Tether is Blockchain based Cryptocurrency, whose
player in the rapidly growing crypto industry. Global
cryptocoins in circulation are backed by an equivalent
companies in different industries, especially financial
amount of traditional fiat currencies, like the Dollar, the
institutions, have adopted the Ripple protocol massively.
Euro or the Japanese yen, which are held in a designated
Ripple is a Cryptocurrency that allows financial transactions bank account. Tether, as it known today, was launched in
of different currencies in the easiest way. In 2011 based on
November 2014, after it was rebranded from the original
the idea of Ripple pay.com Jed Mc Caleb started working on
project Real coin. The project was initially founded by
new version of the Ripple system. The new network would Bitcoin foundation director Brock Pierce, alongside software
not require mining to verify transactions. Mining is central engineer Craig Sellars, and Entrepreneur Reeve Collins. The
feature of some of the largest Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Real coin start up laid the foundation for Tether’s operation
It is necessary to verify the validity of the transactions but
before the name change came about.
take up time and electricity, as it require computing power.
In 2012 Christ- Larsen the founder of E-loan and prosper
The premise of Cryptocurrency was simple to provide a
joined Mc Caleb and they approached Ryan Fugger together. utility token that represented certain fiat currencies at 1:1
Fugger allowed the other two to take over the process and in ratio, with the benefits of cross border payment facilitate by
2012, the team opened new corporation named open coin.
Block chain technology.
Open coin would become the groundworkfor Ripple. Open
coin took it upon itself to create a payment network that The Cryptocurrency was build and operate using Omnilayer
allowed parties to transact between each other without wait platform, a software layer built on the Bitcoin protocol. Thus
time or additional fees. every time new Tether tokens were issued, these could be
tracked on the problem, allowing the wider crypto currency
4) Bitcoin Cash community to keep tabs on how many new Tether were
It is the version on Bitcoin in which the original properties
released.
of digital money still exit. Bitcoin cash (BCH) is an
upgraded version of the Bitcoin core. It was released on Tether, a crypto currency that has long been a point of
August 1st 2017. The main grade offered by bitcoin cash is
contention in the community, has seemingly been unpegged
an increase of the block size limit to 8 MB. This effectively from the US Dollar. The stable coin, by virtue of that very
allows miners on the BCH bitcoin cash chain to process description, was linked to the US Dollar at a 1:1 ratio.
more payment per second. This makes for faster, cheaper Simply put, every Tether token that was minted has to be
transactions and a much smoother user experience. Bitcoin backed by a US Dollar. Tether belong to a new breed of
Volume 9 Issue 5, May 2020
www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR20526163810 DOI: 10.21275/SR20526163810 1756
International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
ResearchGate Impact Factor (2018): 0.28 | SJIF (2019): 7.583
cryptocurrencies called stable coins that aims to keep market leaders, with Bitcoin the most established, Ethereum
Cryptocurrency valuation stable as opposed to the wide the major challenge to its supremacy, and Ripple having
swigs observed I the prices of other popular made a big splash in a short period of time (Grinberg, 2011).
cryprocurriecnes like Bitcoin and Ethereum. That would On the other hand Bitcoin Cash was introduced in August 7
allow it to be used as a medium of exchange and a mode of 2017, it was readily accepted as the Fourth largest
storage of value. According to Crypto compare data cited by cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization possessing
The wall street Journal 80% of all bitcoin trading is done in all the benefits of bitcoins accompanied by speedier
Tether and the stable coin is a major source of liquidity for transactions and lower transaction cost. Bitcoin SV was
the crypto currency market. innovated with a sole different purpose on mind. Each
cryptocurrency, being different from one another, has one
A Comparative Analysis of Cryptocurrencies feature in common, that is, their fluctuating prices. Below is
a glimpse of the fluctuation in prices of the cryptocurrencies
The cryptocurrency family is becoming enriched with (Coinmarketcap.com market overview 2020) in tabular
passing days with innovations being added continuously but format (Table 2-6) over a period of 6 months starting from
Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple have yetmanaged to attract November 2019 till March 2020.
attention of all. These three cryptos can be considered the
Table 2: Price Fluctuation of Bitcoin during November 2019 to March 2020.
Cryptocurrency/Month Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Bitcoin 702932.1 591727.5 554906.6 728834.1 668096.2 490736.7
Figure 1: Price Fluctuation in BITCOIN
Table 3: Changing price of Ethereum during October 2019 to March 2020
Cryptocurrency/Month Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Ethereum 14035.08 11822.48 10075.09 14157.7 17451.69 10136.4
Figure 2: Price Fluctuation in ETHEREUM
Table 4: Variation in the price of Ripple during October 2019 to March 2020
Cryptocurrency/ Month Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Ripple 22.6 17.55 14.79 18.54 18.16 13.02
Volume 9 Issue 5, May 2020
www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR20526163810 DOI: 10.21275/SR20526163810 1757
International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
ResearchGate Impact Factor (2018): 0.28 | SJIF (2019): 7.583
Figure 3: Price Fluctuation in RIPPLE
Table 5: Fluctuating in the price of Tether during Oct 2019 to Mar 2020
Cryptocurrency/Month Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Tether 76.64 76.56 76.48 76.64 76.64 76.64
Figure 4: Price Fluctuation in TETHER
Table 6: Price Fluctuation of Bitcoin Cash during November 2019 to March 2020
Cryptocurrency/Month Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Bitcoin Cash 22161.22 17152.03 15963.34 30133.31 24177.62 16896.82
Figure 5: Price Fluctuation in BITCOIN CASH
Table 7: Comparative Price of the 5 Cryptocurrencies and the Fluctuation in it During October2019 to March 2020
Month / Crypto currency Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Bitcoin 702932.1 591727.5 554906.6 728834.1 668096.2 490736.7
Ethereum 14035.08 11822.48 10075.09 14157.7 17451.69 10136.4
Ripple 22.6 17.55 14.79 18.54 18.16 13.02
Tether 76.64 76.56 76.48 76.64 76.64 76.64
Bitcoin Cash 22161.22 17152.03 15963.34 30133.31 24177.62 16896.82
Volume 9 Issue 5, May 2020
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Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR20526163810 DOI: 10.21275/SR20526163810 1758
International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
ResearchGate Impact Factor (2018): 0.28 | SJIF (2019): 7.583
Figure 6: Comparative 6-Month Price Analysis
The graphs as shown above reflect changes in price over 6 in the price of all selected cryptocurrencies in the month of
months of individual cryptocurrenceis (Figure 1 to Figure 5) January 2020 due to the good market conditions, but in
as well as of all cryptocurrencies taken together (Figure 6). month of February and March not only Cryptocurrencies
It is pretty evidence that all Cryptocurrencies have gone market but also stock market affected by the deadly
downwards in the month of December 2019 due to pre Coronavirus that effect whole world actually it was started
chrismas market cryptocurrencies came down, there is no in the month of December 2019 but it was pandemic in
major regulatory or market development that have clearly February month 2020, it may take so long period to
impact on market sentiments. But in the immediate high rise recovery.
Table 8: Comparative Charatristics Features: Bitcoin VS Ethereum VS Ripple VS Tether VS Bitcoin Cash
Base Concepts Bitcoin Ethereum Ripple Tether Bitcoin Cash
Origin and 2009, Satoshi 2013, Vitalik Buterin 2012, Ripple 2014, Brock Pierce 2017, Bitcoin Community
Originator Nakamato
Symbols Ξ ₮ BCH
& ETH USDT
Ticker
BTC XRP
Transaction The transaction The transaction speed The transaction speed of The transaction The transaction speed of
Speed speed of Bitcoin of Ethereum is Ripple is 4 second speed of Tether is 6 Bitcoin cash is 10 Minutes
is 10 Minutes per 5Minutes per approx. per transaction Minutes per per transaction
transaction transaction transaction
Scalability Bitcoin is able to Ethereum is capable of Ripple is the winner in Tether is able to Bitcoin cash is able to
generate a delivering double as terms of scalability and generate a generate a Maximum 116
maximum of 7 that of Bitcoin, an leaves behind both bitcoin maximum 6 transaction per second
transactions per approximate of 15 and ethereum with itself transaction 60 which is more than
second transactions per leading at as high as 1500 minute Ethereum
second. transactions per second.
Circulating >17 million >102 million > 40 Billion > 7.8 Billion > 17 million
Supply
Block time 10 Minute 15 Second Near Instant Near Instant 10 Minute
Maximum 21 Million No Upper Limit 100 Billion (pre-mined) 7.51 Billion 21 Million
Supply
4. Conclusion cryptocurrencies rally to high in the Feb 2020 and June 2019
respectively after that go on downsizing in month of March
The Quote by Isreli Cryptographer Adi Shamir, “The 2020 due to the world pandemic Covid-19 that not only
Cryptocurrency community hasn’t decided whether they affect Bitcoin cash and Ripple but also Tether coin and all
want to be anarchist rebels or to replace the establish” For the Cryptocurrencies and even all stock market are fall and
this quote, believes, show the number of investors is still also the economy of the several countries got affected. The
growing, which is a concern. Not only the Bitcoin major problem which all Cryptocurrencies face is lack of
individually by the entire fraternity of Cryptocurrency seems information about the trading parties, thereby exposing
to be coming to an end. The rally of Bitcoin and Etherum investors to unforeseen risks including breaches of anti-
significantly since the beginning of 2017 and reaching an all money laundering and financing of terrorism laws. In our
time high market capitalization during the mid of 2017, price country, which still in its phase of development, majority of
started crashing which can actually be reasoned out by individuals are yet to secure minimum Literacy level, on
chain’s decision to ban initial coin offerings by some analysing the characteristics features of the cryptocurrencies,
cryptocurrencies. But Bitcoin Cash and Ripple two comparing the same based on various criteria. It may be
Volume 9 Issue 5, May 2020
www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR20526163810 DOI: 10.21275/SR20526163810 1759
International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
ResearchGate Impact Factor (2018): 0.28 | SJIF (2019): 7.583
concluded that the resons for not investing in cryptocurrency [5] Jaysing Bhosale, Sushil Mavale (March 2018).
outweghit the resons justifying investment in it keeping in Volatility of select Cryptocurrencies: A comparison of
the mind and safety and security of investor and prioritizing Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. Annual Research
their vulnerability towards Cryptocurrency transactions. Journal of SCMS, Pune Page no 132-141.
[6] Coin Market Capitalization: Cryptocurrency Market
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Paper ID: SR20526163810 DOI: 10.21275/SR20526163810 1760
