The Crypto Inevitability: The growing momentum of cryptocurrency in India

CHENNAI-BASED Sudheer Raghav doesn’t earn much from his job, which he describes as “low-paid” because he sells antiques to make a living and the sales are not often good. “It is a case of luck. But I came across cryptocurrencies some three years ago and now I have the resources to call myself well-off; meaning if I feel like travelling to Dubai, spending a few days there and returning, that won’t pinch me much,” says this 32-year-old.

Open had over the years carried similar stories of crypto en­thusiasts striking gold thanks to smart and timely investments in cryptocurrencies. One such is an Indian crypto trader based in Berlin, who goes by the nom de plume Ray the Wanderer. A former hospitality executive who ended up settling in Berlin, Ray bor­rowed €7,000 from his wife, of which he was left with just €1,800 after making a series of “mistakes”. Finally, in mid-2020, he got his act together, becoming a euro millionaire.

The country is witnessing a marked rise in the number of crypto influencers who are a growing breed not only in major urban centres but also in the hinterland. A quick search on the Internet will familiarise you with numerous YouTubers who have made a mark in multiple Indian languages.

The Chainalysis 2025 Global Adoption Index shows that India and the US are at the forefront of crypto adoption even as the Asia-Pacific region accounted for the fastest growth of crypto adoption in the first six months of last year. According to Statista, revenue in the cryptocurrencies market is projected to reach $9.1 billion in 2026 in India. While the US generates the highest estimated annual market revenue at $15.1 billion and leads transaction volumes, India ranks at the top globally in total retail adoption and user numbers, reports say.

The trend crypto exchanges and crypto enthusiasts find in­teresting about India is that while high-net-worth individuals are increasingly parking their money in digital assets, the trend is also visible across socio-economic categories. True, as with any investment, there are gainers as well as losers: a group that in­cludes this writer who is betting on big new experiments in the world of cryptos such as Pi Network, which unlike other cryptos, allows mining on smartphones, making it environment-friendly and enormously attractive to younger crowds, triggering quick mass adoption across the world.

Ads in paan shops in tier-3 and tier-4 towns such as Alwar and Bhuj in India, grocery vendors from Nigeria to Malaysia, and across other countries, including the advanced ones where luxury resorts promise lavish holidays for a few Pi coins, are, to say the least, a confirmation of the excitement across class bar­riers, as Open had reported (‘The Power of Pi Network’, March 2, 2025) earlier.

It is in this context that we have to view a recent recommenda­tion by India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that the Central government consider allowing a recognised Self- Regulatory Organisation (SRO) to oversee the crypto industry until a comprehensive law for Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs) is in place. The proposed SRO, according to the recommendation, would function under the supervision of a designated regulator such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or the Securities and Ex­change Board of India (SEBI) with investor protection at the heart of the proposal. The panel tabled its 36th Report on the proposed Securities Markets Code, 2025, in Parliament on July 23, 2026.

Bengaluru-based crypto expert, author and technology col­umnist Sreejith Sreedharan notes: “The Parliamentary Finance panel’s recommendation for a phased crypto regulatory frame­work, supported by interim self-regulatory oversight under RBI or SEBI, is a welcome and overdue development. India stands at the threshold of an AI-native economy where intelligent agents will increasingly transact, negotiate and execute decisions on behalf of individuals and businesses. That future will depend on trusted digital infrastructure built around tokenised assets, programmable money and digital currencies. Continued policy ambiguity risks leaving India behind.”

He goes on to say that around the world, governments have ac­cepted that crypto brings real risks, from market volatility to illicit finance and monetary concerns. “Yet they are choosing regula­tion over uncertainty. The European Union has implemented MiCA, Singapore operates a well-defined licensing regime under the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the US continues to advance comprehensive market structure legislation through the Clarity Act. For governments preparing their economies for the next generation of digital commerce, regulated engagement with crypto has become a Hobson’s choice.”

When Sreedharan and several other experts say that such a move, even in the form of a recommendation, was long overdue, it is because of the fear of the unknown and status quoist policies of our institutions. To be fair, this is a global trend and not anything restricted to national borders.

Open has pointed out earlier that RBI has not always been thrilled about the surge of cryptocurrencies and their accept­ability. It had, in fact, banned banks from facilitating crypto transactions earlier, a decision that was overturned in March 2020 by the Supreme Court. Inciden­tally, in the 2022-23 Union Budget, India proposed a 30 per cent tax on all capital gains from digital assets and also added that a 1 per cent TDS would be charged on every transaction. Sanjeev Sanyal, then principal economic adviser, Ministry of Finance, wrote around the time in Open that what was imposed on gains on any asset sales and windfalls is reasonable. “When you buy and sell other assets, you have to pay capital gains tax. There is no par­ticular reason why you shouldn’t be doing this for this particular asset. This does not endow any legitimacy to such crypto assets. It doesn’t in any way regulate or regularise this space. It just says what is obvious: if you make capital gains from other assets and pay tax, there is nothing exclusive about those who make a profit from crypto assets. Moreover, the current laissez-faire regulatory system cannot be sustained. Globally, the whole discussion on regulating crypto assets is taking place at the level of the G20 because it cannot be handled by any single country,” he wrote.

CRYPTOPHOBIA, AS WE know, has gradually been disappearing with HNIs and behemoths investing in them. Academics have talked about FOMO (fear of miss­ing out) among the rich and the middle class alike as regards cryp­tos. A study published by Cambridge University Press titled “The fear of missing out on cryptocurrency and stock investments: Direct and indirect effects of financial literacy and risk tolerance” penned by Paul Gerrans, Sherin Babu Abisekaraj and Zhangxin (Frank) Liu concludes, “We find FoMO has a significant associa­tion with current crypto investment and future stock or crypto investment intentions. Financial literacy and risk tolerance have larger associations than FoMO with current stock ownership, whereas for current crypto ownership, FoMO has a larger associa­tion. Financial literacy retains a significant small effect for future stock investment but is not economically meaningful for crypto.”

But then things are changing at a faster pace with realisation dawning on people that we will have to live with the risks that crypto brings along. Sreedharan adds, “The (Indian) commit­tee's recommendation should be the starting point for swift, coordinated legislation, not a holding pattern that prolongs regulatory uncertainty. In the neighborhood, Pakistan has al­ready established a statutory framework for virtual assets, while Bhutan is expanding state-backed digital asset initiatives. India possesses far greater market scale, technical talent and fintech maturity. It should now translate this parliamentary momen­tum into a clear, future-ready regulatory framework that posi­tions the country as a global leader in the digital asset economy rather than a cautious follower.” The panel has recommended no change for 30 per cent tax for profits from the transfer or trading of any virtual digital asset (without deductions for nor­mal losses or expenses) or for 1 per cent TDS.

For crypto entrepreneurs as well as investors in India, global trends often have an immediate impact. For instance, a few years ago when a US verdict by Judge Analisa Torres of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York said that cryptocur­rency Ripple did not break the law when it sold its cryptocur­rency, XRP, on public exchanges, there was massive cheer across the country like elsewhere in the world. The adverse impact of bad news elsewhere is also sharp and swift. The FTX Bankruptcy in 2022 due to severe fund mismanagement buffeted the markets back home, too. Back then, Atul Khekade, co-founder of XinFin (XDC) Network, told Open that crypto is an evolving industry. “It is an industry that has brought innovation and fundamental changes to the world of finance. Some of the world’s largest finan­cial institutions and global industries have committed to crypto’s underlying blockchain technology to improve long-held and archaic processes,” he said. For his part, Nischal Shetty, founder- CEO of Mumbai-based crypto exchange WazirX, then argued that bull and bear cycles are part of any financial market.

They may be spot on, but the key takeaway from the Indian parliamentary panel’s recommendations is that more and more governments are showing the willingness to take risks in their strides, at a time when India’s crypto market is passing through a major a shift in investor behaviour, according to crypto trad­ing app CoinDCX, with women investors growing at a fast clip thanks to greater financial freedom.