Indians turn to crypto en masse amid job market struggles

The crypto market in India is witnessing an unprecedented surge as thousands of people—particularly young workers—turn to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin in an attempt to escape stagnant wages and a brutal job market, according to a report from Reuters.

This isn’t only happening in major metros like Mumbai and Delhi. Small cities Jaipur, Lucknow, and Pune are seeing a surge in crypto adoption too, as more people look for ways to supplement their income amid slow economic mobility.

Ashish Nagose, a 28-year-old flower shop owner in Nagpur, started trading crypto two months ago after attending a local trading school, according to Reuters. For him, it’s about survival. “I want to run my family shop, and hope that trading can provide a steady income when business slows down, like in the month after Diwali,” he reportedly told Reuters.

Institutional interest in crypto increases

But the enthusiasm for crypto isn’t limited to retail traders. Institutional interest is rising, and India’s crypto market is projected to reach $15 billion by 2035, up from $2.5 billion in 2024, according to Grant Thornton Bharat. The estimated compound annual growth rate is 18.5%, which is pretty high.

The biggest surprise in India’s crypto explosion isn’t just the numbers—it’s where the trading is happening. Data from CoinSwitch, one of the country’s largest crypto platforms, shows that seven of the top 10 crypto-trading cities in 2024 were lower-tier cities.

“Growth is now being driven by non-metro cities. That’s true for the stock world, and it’s true for crypto,” said Balaji Srihari, vice president at CoinSwitch, which has 20 million users.

One of those traders is Sagar Neware, a 25-year-old mechanical engineer in Nagpur. By day, he earns 25,000 rupees ($288) a month working at the local transport office. By night, he trades crypto, hoping to reopen his father’s plastic packaging business, which shut down a few years ago.

“My father had to shut down his plastic packaging business a few years back, so my first dream is to restart it with the money I can earn from trading,” Neware said, according to Reuters.

To sharpen his trading skills, Neware attends a small school where two dozen people meet each weekday to learn technical analysis, risk management, and crypto market psychology. The school’s owner, Yash Jaiswal, has tutored 1,500 people in just two years. Inside the classroom, a poster reportedly reads: “You’re just one trade away from your dream life.”

India has still not clarified its crypto regulatory stance

Despite the explosion in trading, India’s crypto industry still operates in a legal gray area. Unlike most G-20 countries, India has neither introduced new laws governing digital assets nor folded crypto into existing financial regulations.

The government has imposed a 30% tax on crypto trading gains, one of the strictest tax regimes globally, but hasn’t taken any more steps to regulate exchanges or investor protections. India’s market regulator has indicated interest in overseeing the industry, but the government has yet to issue formal guidelines.

“Widespread usage of crypto assets and stablecoins has consequences for macroeconomic and financial stability,” it said in its Financial Stability Report in December 2024.

Trading volumes on India’s four largest crypto exchanges (WazirX, CoinDCX, CoinSwitch, and Kucoin) doubled in just three months, hitting $1.9 billion in Q4 2024, according to data from CoinGecko.

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