New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS): As Bitcoin once again reclaimed the $1 trillion market cap, crossing $54,000 per digital coin, Indian crypto leaders on Thursday expressed hope that India and its neighbouring countries will continue their dominance because of the large number of active crypto investors in the region.

The Indian cryptocurrency market is expected to reach up to $241 million by 2030 in India and $2.3 billion by 2026 worldwide.

According to a report by IT industry's apex body Nasscom, there are 15 million retail investors in India investing in the cryptotech space.

"The recent jump in Bitcoin price has a larger message for the world. In the post-pandemic world, Bitcoin has emerged as the best performing asset class of 2021, as a result of which institutional and retail investors are moving from slow/traditional assets to high growth/technology-led assets," said Shivam Thakral, CEO, BuyUcoin.

There has been a paradigm shift in the investment patterns across the globe which is underlined by the data shared by crypto exchanges from time to time.

"India is home to around 1.5 crore active crypto investors, which amounts to $40 billion in investment in crypto, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. India's middle-class population is willing to explore digital assets for creating long-term wealth to fulfil their goals, which may not be possible through any other asset class," Thakral added.

Crypto asset exchange ZebPay has also launched India's first global Electronic Over-The-Counter (OTC) Desk for large volume traders and institutional investors globally.

Avinash Shekhar, Co-CEO, ZebPay, said that the company aims to create a robust crypto ecosystem and a multi-faceted business where the needs of both the retail and institutional investors are met seamlessly.

"With the ZebPay OTC Desk, we are addressing the growing institutional interest in crypto globally and in India. This will further encourage adoption of crypto in the country and help create a mark for India as a major player in this emerging space," he added.

Jay Hao, CEO, OKEx.com, said that during the slight dip last month, crypto-related investments witnessed record inflows owing to the growing global acceptance of crypto assets.

"The same momentum is boosting the prices of other popular crypto assets like Ethereum, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, among others. India and its neighbouring countries are the main growth drivers of the crypto economy in South East Asia and they will continue their dominance because of the large number of active crypto investors in the region," Hao noted.