Indian HNIs swap stocks for crypto as family offices join global bull run

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Indian high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) are ditching gold and stocks to ‘hodl’ crypto. Top exchanges like CoinDCX, CoinSwitch, Mudrex, and ZebPay are seeing a surge in Indian family office participation, riding the bull run as global markets rally amid the ongoing ‘Crypto Week’ in the US.

Though still cautiously dipping toes into crypto trading and investments due to lack of regulatory clarity and high taxation in the country, crypto investment platform Mudrex saw HNI trading volume increase by 30 percent from previous week to $10 million.

CoinDCX saw average per trade sizes of HNIs, which was about Rs 5 lakh per trade in June, increase by nearly 25-30 percent in July.

Additionally, between January to June, CoinDCX saw nearly 50 percent of its total trading volumes being driven by over 3,500 HNIs, family offices and institutions with an average investment of more than Rs 50 lakh in monthly trading volume on spot markets.

CoinSwitch’s co-founder Ashish Singhal didn’t disclose exact numbers on HNI trades but shared that they are largely gravitating toward blue-chip tokens like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH)— “assets that have stood the test of time and offer a strong mix of credibility and liquidity.”

Apart from these two major tokens, Solana and Ripple (XRP) too are seeing HNI interest across exchanges.

According to Singhal, there’s a shift in the mindset of the HNIs and family offices. “What’s interesting is how the conversation has shifted—from ‘Why crypto?’ to ‘How much exposure makes sense, and where should we allocate it?’ …Today, Indian HNIs are not just curious—they are convinced.”

“HNI clients are jumping into the crypto rally. If you see, Bitcoin ETFs are at an all-time high, with capital inflows of $70 billion going into it. The value of those investments at the same time has doubled to more than $150 billion in just 18 months of launch. Even Gold ETFs haven’t been able to give such an yield in 20 years,” Edul Patel, co-founder and CEO, Mudrex told Moneycontrol.

He added, “Indian family offices are looking at their global peers stacking up crypto tokens. Bitcoin ETFs are not yet widely available in India, so they are just buying and holding the blue chip crypto tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum; hoping that regulations will follow.”

Mridul Gupta, founding partner, CoinDCX said that HNIs have been more balanced investors and continue to do smaller investments every month.

“HNI demand too has shot up recently. Institutions still don’t have enough clarity yet on how things will show up on their balance sheet, so in India they are not participating as much yet. We have doubled our HNI team in the last six months, we see very strong demand from them,” Gupta told Moneycontrol.

Retail investor rally

Irrespective of the optimism and interest, HNI crypto trades are still comparatively low in numbers when compared to the retail investors.

CoinSwitch saw a 3X increase in daily average trading volume, ever since Bitcoin has hit record highs in the beginning of the week. The exchange said that it is noticing a shift in investment behaviour as even retail investors now want to hold for the long term.

CoinDCX recorded nearly $275 million in trading volumes in June when the per day average was about $9.17 million. This has grown nearly 40% in July, where within the first 15 days, per day average has increased to $12.82 million.

For Mudrex, spot trading volumes have increased by 102 percent while futures volumes rose by 200 percent in just the past one week. Of this, 45 percent of trading volumes came from Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Ripple and the remaining 55 percent was driven mostly by meme coins such as Doge, PEPE, and Shiba Inu.

Zebpay is observing that the trading volume has skewed slightly toward buying, with an estimated split of around 60 percent buying activity and 40 percent selling.

“This trend suggests that retail investors are positioning themselves in anticipation of further upward movement in the market…Many investors are entering or re-entering the market, while others are selectively booking profits, especially those who accumulated assets at lower price points earlier this year,” Harish Vatnani, Head of Trade, ZebPay said.

US Crypto Week

The Crypto Week that kickstarted on July 14, has been the biggest driver for this all-time high crypto rally. This was a historic event as American lawmakers debated three major bills —the Genius Act, the Clarity Act, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act—that could change the game for digital assets.

The Genius Act is a big deal, laying the groundwork for regulating stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies tied to the US dollar to keep their value steady. The Clarity Act will sort out who’s in charge—whether it’s the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission—making life easier for crypto platforms.

The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, meanwhile, is about stopping a government-controlled digital currency, giving private players more room to shine.

So far, The Genius Act has already passed the Senate gaining majority votes and will now head to the US president Donald Trump’s desk. The other two bills will now go to the Senate.

Also read: Moneycontrol Pro Panorama | Crypto craze hits India’s rich