On 21 April 2026, CoinSwitch released the Q1 edition of its quarterly report titled “India’s Crypto Portfolio: How India Invests,” drawing on activity from more than 2.5 crore users across the country.
While the headline numbers focus on age groups, state-wise adoption, and coin preferences, the real story sits underneath the charts: India’s crypto market is maturing, but it is doing so inside one of the harshest tax frameworks in the world, and that contradiction is shaping investor behaviour in ways the industry will have to watch closely.
The older investor finally shows up
The 26 to 35 age group still holds the largest share of the platform at 48%. But the real movement this quarter came from the 35+ segment. Investors between 36 and 45 now account for 21% of the user base, while those 46 and above make up another 12%. The 18 to 25 cohort, long assumed to dominate Indian crypto, sits at just 19%, as per CoinSwitch Q1 2026 report.
This is a meaningful shift. Older investors in India are not impulse-driven. They typically wait for three things before entering a new asset class: regulatory clarity, a track record of survival, and evidence of long-term value. That they are entering crypto in numbers now suggests all three boxes have been ticked to their satisfaction.
It also brings a different kind of capital into the system. Gen X and older millennials tend to invest larger sums, hold for longer periods, and avoid the churn that characterises younger traders. Their presence should, over time, reduce the volatility that India’s retail crypto market has been known for.
The gender split, unfortunately, has not moved meaningfully. Men make up 88% of investors on the platform, women just 12%. Though, as the state-level data shows, the national average hides some genuinely surprising exceptions.
Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra still lead, but the map is spreading
Uttar Pradesh remains the country’s largest crypto market at roughly 12.9% of total participation, followed by Maharashtra at 12.3%. Karnataka comes in at 8.1% and New Delhi at 7.4%. Haryana and Rajasthan are tied at 5.9% each. West Bengal (5.3%), Tamil Nadu (5.0%), Andhra Pradesh (4.9%), and Bihar (4.3%) round out the top ten.
What has changed is that the tail is filling out. In earlier cycles, crypto adoption in India was heavily concentrated in four or five metros. The Q1 2026 data shows a more even spread, with Tier 2 cities and smaller state capitals contributing real volume rather than just symbolic participation.
Bitcoin dominates, but memecoins refuse to exit
Bitcoin accounts for 9.2% of all portfolio allocations and 17.4% of trading activity, well ahead of every other asset. Dogecoin follows at 6.0%, Ethereum at 5.6%, Shiba Inu at 4.4%, XRP at 4.0%, Cardano at 3.1%, Solana at 2.8%, Polygon at 2.6%, Internet Computer at 2.6%, and Pepe at 1.8%.
On the trading side, Ethereum sits behind BTC at 9.1%, followed by XRP (6.1%), Solana (6.0%), Light (4.1%), DOGE (3.2%), PEPE (2.0%), SHIB (2.0%), SUI (1.3%) and Cardano (1.3%).
Three memecoins in the top ten tells its own story. Despite every effort to push India towards “serious” crypto assets, retail sentiment continues to reserve a corner for community-driven tokens. USDT was excluded from the breakdown because it is used primarily for settlements on the platform rather than for speculation.
India’s late-night trading habit
Trading activity peaks between 10 PM and 11 PM, long after equity markets have closed. The pattern has held across several CoinSwitch reports and is a defining trait of the Indian crypto user: most trade after their day jobs are done.
Weekdays outperform weekends consistently, suggesting that trading is now routine-based rather than opportunistic. The sharpest activity of the quarter came on February 5 and 6, when global prices dropped. Rather than selling, Indian users bought. That response, across a user base this large, is the kind of behaviour you normally associate with mature markets, not emerging ones.
The HODL culture runs deep
61.3% of users on the platform qualify as HODLers, holding assets for more than a year. 28.3% engage in momentum trading, 20.4% actively buy dips, and 24.7% diversify across asset categories. Another 22% fall into the “others” bucket with alternative strategies. The percentages add up to more than 100 because users often overlap across categories.
Memecoin activity draws roughly 17% of user interest, while DeFi protocols hold a steady 11.5% share.
Each state has its own personality
This is where the report gets genuinely interesting.
- Karnataka has the highest blue-chip allocation in the country at 32%, signalling a conservative, stability-first investor base. Bengaluru alone contributes 68.4% of the state’s crypto activity.
- Bihar is the polar opposite. At 38% small-cap allocation, it is the most aggressive growth market in India. Patna accounts for 38.1% of state activity, and in an unusual twist, SHIB is the most invested coin there rather than BTC.
- Andhra Pradesh is the only state where women outnumber men among investors, at 59.1% female participation. DOGE, not BTC, is the most invested asset there, and Hyderabad drives 35.2% of state activity.
- Haryana records the highest male participation in the country at 83.7%, with 30.3% of portfolios in small caps. Gurugram drives 39.9% of state activity, reflecting its corporate and startup-heavy workforce.
- Maharashtra leans conservative, with blue-chip (30.1%) and large-cap (28.8%) assets forming the core of portfolios. Mumbai contributes 38.7% of state volume.
- Uttar Pradesh, despite leading national adoption, shows a balanced spread across market caps, with Noida contributing 30.4% of state activity.
- New Delhi is one of the most evenly distributed markets. Rajasthan shows steady mid and small-cap exposure, with Jaipur driving 46.9% of activity.
- West Bengal ranks among the top states for female participation at 26.8%, with Kolkata at 48.8% of state’s volume.
- Tamil Nadu has a near-perfect split between blue-chip (26.1%) and large-caps (26.2%), with Chennai contributing 45.8%.
The elephant in the room: India’s tax regime
Now, for the context that the report itself does not go into.
The Q1 2026 data has to be read against the backdrop of one of the world’s harshest crypto tax regimes. India continues to levy a flat 30% tax on crypto gains and a 1% TDS on every transaction, with no provision to offset losses. The Union Budget for 2026-27 left the existing framework unchanged, despite months of lobbying from the domestic industry.
The new wrinkle, effective 1 April 2026, is a penalty framework for reporting lapses. Entities that fail to file crypto-asset transaction reports face a ₹200-per-day fine, and a flat ₹50,000 penalty for incorrect or uncorrected information. The message from the government is clear: no relief on rates, but tighter enforcement on compliance.
The industry’s pushback has been consistent. Tax India Online has projected a cumulative tax leakage of around ₹40,000 crore by 2030 as users continue to migrate to offshore exchanges in Dubai and Singapore to avoid Indian compliance costs. The420 Executives across the sector have argued that cutting the TDS from 1% to 0.01%, allowing loss set-offs, and bringing exchanges under a clear SEBI framework would bring activity back onshore.
This is the quiet tension running through the CoinSwitch data. India’s crypto market is maturing in character, with older investors, longer holding periods, and more structured strategies, but a meaningful chunk of active trading volume has likely already moved offshore because of tax drag.
The 61.3% HODLer figure may partly reflect genuine conviction, but it may also reflect the fact that every trade on an Indian platform costs users 1% upfront, making frequent trading expensive by design.
The regulatory tightening
On the compliance side, the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) updated its Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing guidelines for Virtual Digital Asset Service Providers in January 2026.
Both domestic and offshore platforms serving Indian users are now required to register, with stricter KYC, enhanced due diligence, and tighter transaction monitoring.
For a sector that has operated in a regulatory grey zone for years, this has brought welcome clarity, even if it has raised costs for smaller operators.
The macro backdrop
The quarter was not easy for any risk asset. Escalation in the Iran conflict briefly pushed Brent crude above $100 per barrel and triggered sharp volatility in global equities and bonds. Crypto sold off initially but recovered faster than in previous geopolitical cycles, helped by deeper institutional participation and better liquidity infrastructure.
Indian activity moderated during the peak risk-off phases but did not collapse. That resilience, across a user base of 2.5 crore, is probably the most quietly significant finding in the report.
What it adds up to
Put the pieces together, and a picture emerges. India is building one of the largest and most mature retail crypto markets in the world, but it is doing so despite its tax framework, not because of it. Older investors are showing up. HODLing dominates. Regional investing personalities are developing. And yet a parallel offshore ecosystem continues to pull liquidity out of the country because onshore costs are punitive.
Whether the next phase of growth stays onshore or continues to leak abroad will depend less on what platforms like CoinSwitch do, and more on whether Delhi decides that world-leading grassroots adoption is worth a more pragmatic tax regime.
The findings in the report are drawn exclusively from CoinSwitch user data and do not reflect activity on other Indian or offshore platforms, which means the numbers should be read as a large and representative sample rather than a complete market picture.
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