Why Is WazirX Crypto Skyrocketing, Up 930% In A Week?

The utility token of WazirX, which claims to be India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has risen 929.89% in a seven-day trailing period leading up to press time.

What Happened: WazirX (WRX) was trading 195.16% higher at $4.76 at press time on Sunday night. 

WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty acknowledged in a tweet Sunday that the WRX token had crossed $1 billion in market cap. He simply tweeted #IndiaWantsCrypto, a hashtag meant to indicate support for cryptocurrencies in India where the government is said to be considering a ban.

#IndiaWantsCrypto https://t.co/e6FDd5bwzj

— Nischal (WazirX)  (@NischalShetty) April 4, 2021

A delay in the introduction of a bill in the Indian parliament that would have banned cryptocurrencies has also lifted the spirits of investors in that country, according to local Indian media.

Investors said that the delay is a signal that the government is further studying the subject rather than issuing an outright ban, reported The Quint, an Indian news portal.

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As of press time, WRX had a market cap of $1.14 billion, as per CoinmarketCap data, meagre compared to the apex cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC), which enjoys a market cap of $1.09 trillion.

BTC traded 1.47% higher at $58,257.32 at press time.

What Else: On Sunday night, WazirX crashed. According to Shetty, the crash was due to “internal limits” set by some of the exchange’s infrastructure providers. Shetty disclosed that system loads were “crazy” on Twitter. 

Shetty issued an update in the early morning hours (India time) and said trading was on but warned of “intermittent errors.”

We’re awake and we’re monitoring the systems. There might be intermittent errors, team is working on solving those. https://t.co/qPrHIwL7O0

— Nischal (WazirX)  (@NischalShetty) April 4, 2021

Significantly, the crash of WazirX came on the same day when its token hit an all-time high of $5.87.