Sign In
By signing in or creating an account, you agree with Associated Broadcasting Company's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
By signing in or creating an account, you agree with Associated Broadcasting Company's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Kolkata: A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. In the world of economy and finance, a piece of statistic is surely capable of conveying a lot more. Just consider a small piece of data. According to Union finance ministry data, tax deducted at source (TDS) collected in FY23, FY24 and FY25 was Rs 221.27 crore, Rs 362.7 crore and Rs 511.83 crore. This data reveals how the entire year might have gone for the cryptocurrency investors in India.
Young Indians, who are born with the internet, well heeled and can take come risk in investments showed their appetite in cryptocurrency. Their enthusiasm was boosted by what US President Donald Trump did after assuming charge towards the beginning of this year. Trump not only vowed to turn the US into a global crypto powerhouose but also ended a regulatory crackdown on crypto and approved a legislation that embossed the administration's approval on this asset class. In fact, he launched a crypto asset in his family's name and set up a crypto firm called World Liberty Financial with his three sons.
However, despite those words of caution, the young and restless Indian investors are clearly throwing caution to the wind. A CoinSwitch report clearly stated that the age bracket of active crypto investors went down in 2025. The 18–25 age group has officially overtaken the 26–35 bracket as the most active investors in crypto. For them, digital assets are no longer a risky experiment — they're becoming part of a serious investment plan.
The CoinSwitch report states that the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Kolkata have remained as the top investors. But the real surprise of 2025 has been that cities such as Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Patna are coming up fast. In Q3FY26, the city of Ahmedabad broke into the top 10 crypto-investing cities.
Mumbai: 37.4% of portfolio in Bitcoin and Ethereum
Hyderabad: Large-cap allocations at 37.3% (adopting long-term approach)
Patna: 42% of investments in mid-cap assets
Jaipur: 9.4% allocation to small-cap coins
Union finance ministry data reveal that about Rs 661 crore out of the nearly Rs 1,100 crore worth of TDS collected from crypto investments were accounted for by one state -- Maharashtra. If one narrows down he taxes collected in FY25 only, Maharashtra accounted for 57% of the total TDS collected from all exchanges in the country.
The top five states in terms of TDS collection in FY25 were:
Maharashtra: Rs 293.4 crore
Karnataka: Rs 133.94 crore
Gujarat: Rs 28.63 crore
Delhi: Rs 28.33 crore
Rajasthan: Rs 15.48 crore
Bitcoin grabbed the headlines this year, thanks to the tailwind from US President Donald Trump. In Q2FY26, Bitcoin accounted 7.2% of total Indian crypto investments.
Dogecoin was at the second place accounting for 6.1%
Ethereum was at the third spot
Shiba Inu was at the fourth spot
Ripple, Cardano, Solana and Polygon also attracted some interest
The above piece of data points to an unmistakable trend. Despite the Union finance ministry and RBI's active discouragement of investment in cryptocurrency, investors in this esoteric asset class in India is growing regularly and growing fast. The Indian crypto investor has been growing younger. The Centre has levies 30% tax on earnings from cryptocurrency investments though the government thinks that investments in crypto assets is fraught with risks both for the investor and for the country -- for the investor since he/she has no idea how and why prices move up and down and for the country, since these borderless transactions could be used for subversive activities.
