Overseas equities or crypto: Where are Indian investors putting their money in 2026? — SkimNews
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- Reserve Bank of India LRS outward remittances totaled $2.39 billion in May 2026, with the equity and debt investment component more than doubling year-on-year to $363.6 million.
- April-May 2026 combined LRS equity and debt remittances reached $603.3 million, up nearly 96% year-on-year.
- India's retail crypto transaction volume hit approximately $46 billion in Q1 2026, per TRM Labs data, even as global retail crypto volumes declined 11% in the same quarter.
- Vikaas M Sachdeva, CEO of BitDelta India, argued the data reflects Indian investors' willingness to look beyond a single market rather than substituting between asset classes.
- Sachdeva cautioned the two datasets measure different things—LRS captures aggregate outward remittances for permitted overseas investments, while crypto figures reflect digital-asset market activity—so they cannot reveal individual allocation decisions.
- Overseas equities offer Indian investors geographic diversification and access to sectors with limited domestic representation, though they carry currency, volatility, tax and regulatory considerations.
- Sachdeva urged participation through transparent, compliant channels—whether LRS for overseas investments or FIU-registered reporting entities for virtual digital assets.
Why it matters: For Indian retail investors, capital is expanding across multiple channels simultaneously—$363.6 million in LRS equity/debt remittances alone in May, nearly double year-on-year, while domestic crypto activity reached $46 billion against an 11% global drop. Sachdeva's central point matters for advisors: treating overseas flows and crypto as substitutes is wrong, since both lanes are growing independently.
Ask SkimNews
