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Bitcoin, Ether and Stablecoins
What is the difference between Bitcoin, Ethereum (Ether) and USDT?
Bitcoin is a fixed-supply asset with no company behind it, crypto's reserve asset; Ether is the coin you pay, in a fee called "gas," to use the Ethereum network. Stablecoins like USDT and USDC are tokens a company promises to keep worth one US dollar, so you are trusting that company.
Module 1 · Chapter 2 of 10 · ~5 min read · Tax and law facts as of August 2026
Chapter 1 explained crypto in one minute, without one tricky word. Now meet the three coins you will actually see on an Indian exchange.
- 21MBTC hard cap
- ₹95.3per $, Aug 2026
- $65,000sample BTC price
- 87¢USDC low, Mar 2023
Bitcoin (BTC): the reserve asset with no boss
Bitcoin has a hard limit written into its own code. Only 21 million bitcoins will ever exist, and nobody can raise that number.
No company or government issues Bitcoin, and no boss controls it. Thousands of independent computers around the world keep its record together, so no one can change the rules.
Traders treat Bitcoin as crypto's reserve asset, the coin everything else is measured against.
One bitcoin splits into 100 million tiny units called satoshis. Indian exchanges let you start with as little as ₹100, so ₹1,000 buys a small slice.
Ether (ETH): the fuel of a programmable network
Ethereum runs small programs on its own computers. These programs move money, mint tokens or run apps without a bank in the middle.
Using the network costs a fee called "gas," paid only in ETH. Ethereum's own documentation is clear: every gas fee must be paid in ETH.
Bitcoin's job is to store value with a fixed supply. Ether's job is keeping a network of apps running.
Stablecoins (USDT, USDC): a dollar promise, not a rupee
A stablecoin is a token a company promises to keep worth one US dollar. USDT comes from Tether, and USDC comes from Circle.
This dollar link brings two risks a plain rupee never carries. The USD/INR rate moves daily, so your 10.49 USDT is worth a different rupee amount tomorrow.
The $1 promise holds only if the issuer truly holds enough safe assets for every token in circulation.
Those reserves are not a vault of cash. Tether's quarterly attestations show most backing sits in short-term US government debt, plus gold, bitcoin and loans.
Most days USDT and USDC trade within a fraction of a cent of $1. On 11 March 2023, USDC fell to about 87 cents.
Silicon Valley Bank had just collapsed holding $3.3 billion of Circle's reserves. That is what issuer risk looks like when it hits the market.
As of August 2026, Bitcoin, Ether and USDT are all "virtual digital assets" under India's Income Tax Act. None is legal tender, and the RBI has said so repeatedly.
Line up Bitcoin, Ether and any stablecoin together. The same three questions answer each one: supply, control, purpose.
Same coin, two price tags: BTC/INR and BTC/USDT
An exchange does not print one price for bitcoin. It lists a "trading pair," the asset you buy paired with the currency you pay in.
BTC/INR quotes bitcoin's price directly in rupees, the money in your bank. BTC/USDT quotes the same bitcoin in USDT, crypto's dollar stand-in.
The table below uses August 2026 sample rates, just to show the arithmetic.
| You pay | USDT at a sample ₹95.3/$ | BTC at a sample $65,000/BTC |
|---|---|---|
| ₹500 | 5.25 USDT | 0.00008 BTC |
| ₹1,000 | 10.49 USDT | 0.00016 BTC |
| ₹5,000 | 52.47 USDT | 0.00081 BTC |
Each step takes a small spread or fee, rupee to USDT and then USDT to bitcoin. Chasing the BTC/INR headline price alone can hide what you actually paid.
"Altcoin" means every coin that is not Bitcoin
Any crypto coin that is not Bitcoin is called an "altcoin," short for alternative coin. Tracking sites follow millions of tokens, from serious projects to jokes launched last week.
Even a large exchange lists only a few hundred of those tokens. For a beginner, almost all of that list is noise, not opportunity.
Drishti's own AI signals stay narrow for this reason, instead of chasing new listings. Check which coins our AI is actually long on to see that short list.
Next: why even these familiar coins can swing so much in price.
Key takeaways
- Bitcoin (BTC) has a fixed supply of 21 million coins, and no company or government issues it.
- Ether (ETH) is the fuel of Ethereum, and every gas fee must be paid in ETH.
- Stablecoins (USDT, USDC) are tokens a company issues and promises to keep worth one US dollar.
- A stablecoin carries two risks a rupee does not: the USD/INR rate and the issuer's reserves.
- Issuer risk is real: USDC fell to about 87 cents in March 2023, when Silicon Valley Bank collapsed.
- Trading pairs: BTC/INR prices bitcoin in rupees, while BTC/USDT prices the same coin in dollars.
- In India these are "virtual digital assets" under the Income Tax Act, not legal tender, as of August 2026.
- "Altcoin" covers millions of listed tokens, and for a beginner almost all of them are noise.
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Educational & illustrative only — not investment advice. Drishti Pro publishes AI-generated trade ideas and their public track record for information. Crypto is volatile and you can lose money. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any asset. Do your own research.