Today, Verge (XVG) trading went live for the first time on an Indian cryptocurrency exchange.

Bitbns, which announced the listing yesterday, is the only crypto exchange in India where it is currently possible to buy/sell XVG tokens:

And then today, Bitbns announced that at 04:00 EST (or 13:30 in India), XVG trading would be going live:

Although India’s central bank, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued an order on 5 April 2018 that advised banks not to facilitate crypto related transactions in any way, it also gave them a three-month moratorium. Since the ban went into effect, crypto trading volumes have only increased. This is probably for two reasons. First, India’s crypto investors want to get their hands on as much as cryptocurrency as they can while the exchanges are still open (which usually have higher liquidity and lower prices than peer-to-peer OTC exchanges). Second, there is a growing feeling in India that the government will not ban cryptocurrency trading and that even if the exchanges’ banking accounts get closed, that crypto-to-crypto trading would still survive. 

Although RBI seems to have a very negative view of crypto assets in general and the dangers they pose, according to The Times of India, the central bank is considering launching its own digital currency. Whilst talking to the media on the same day that the RBI issued its press release about the ban, the Deputy Governor of the RBI,  B P Kanungo said:

While many central banks are still engaged in the debate, an inter-departmental group has been constituted by the Reserve Bank to study and provide guidance on the desirability and feasibility to introduce a central bank digital currency.

Mr. B. P. Kanungo, Deputy Governor of RBI

However, Verge getting listed on Bitbns was not the only Verge-related news this week. Here is a roundup of some of the other important news for the week of 30 April 2018 – 6 May 2018.

Monday (30 April 2018)

  • TokenPay CEO, Derek Capo, gave a YouTube interview in which he answered questions from Telegram and YouTube about TokenPay in general and their partnership with Verge in particular: 

Tuesday (1 May 2018)

  • Abra announced that they were going to add support for XVG in their mobile crypto trading app:

Wednesday (2 May 2018)

  • Verge announced that block reward halving would take place on 9 May 2018:

Friday (4 May 2018)

  • Online ad network TrafficJunky announced that they would accept XVG as a form of payment starting on 7 May 2018: