Overseas equities or crypto: Where are Indian investors putting their money in 2026?
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- Outward remittances under the RBI's Liberalised Remittance Scheme rose to $2.39 billion in May 2026, with the equity and debt component more than doubling year-on-year to $363.6 million.
- April-May 2026 combined equity and debt remittances totaled $603.3 million, up nearly 96% year-on-year, per the LRS data cited.
- India's retail crypto transaction volume reached approximately $46 billion in Q1 2026, according to TRM Labs data cited by BitDelta India CEO Vikaas M Sachdeva.
- The crypto surge came in a quarter when global retail crypto volumes declined 11%, a contrast Sachdeva flagged as notable given India's regulatory and tax environment.
- Vikaas M Sachdeva, CEO of BitDelta India, said the more interesting trend is investors' willingness to look beyond a single market rather than a shift between asset classes.
- Sachdeva cautioned the two datasets measure different things—LRS figures capture permitted overseas investments while crypto data reflects digital-asset market activity—so they do not reveal how individual investors are allocating between assets.
- Sachdeva stressed participation should occur through compliant channels, either via permitted LRS routes for overseas investments or FIU-registered reporting entities for virtual digital assets in India.
Why it matters: Indian retail capital is flowing outward through regulated channels at a notable pace—April-May 2026 equity/debt remittances jumped 96% year-on-year to $603.3 million—and crypto activity hit $46 billion in Q1 2026 even as global retail crypto volumes fell 11%, suggesting Indian participation is decoupling from global trends. Sachdeva frames the pattern as portfolio diversification rather than substitution, but the source itself notes the two datasets cannot show how any individual investor is allocating.
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