“Do not promote or discuss local deposit options in India; do not highlight local client support,” the CEO of an offshore contracts for differences (CFD) broker advised on LinkedIn ahead of a trading expo held in India last month. Dozens of CFD brokers and industry service providers visited the expo.
His other suggestions? “If anyone (visitor, exhibitor, or official) asks how you are promoting forex in India, simply respond: ‘Our services are specifically for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who live outside the country’.”
There is irony here. His offshore broker now runs Indian festival-themed campaigns, which clearly target Indians. The campaigns do not mention NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) at all.
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FinanceMangates.com verified that in several cases, brokers onboard anyone from India, irrespective of an NRI, by registering in their platform.
Everyone wants a piece of the Indian market, but they remain cautious of regulators and maybe of the country's money laundering police as well.
Read more on Indian markets: How Prop Firms Win India Without Saying ‘Forex’ or ‘CFDs’
Too Lucrative to Ignore
Web traffic from India to FX/CFD-related brokers surged 55 per cent in 2024's Q3 of the global visits, according to Finance Magnates Intelligence.
A year after, however, the figure dropped, reflecting a 21.4 per cent decrease year-on-year. While it is hard to provide comprehensive reasons, the fact that some of the biggest brokers have limited their operations in the market is likely to account for it.
In mid-2025, Exness, for example, suspended onboarding clients from India. Then the global broker has removed its app from Play Store and AppStore in the country. Interestingly, other brokers like Ya Markets even pumped up their marketing in India to capture the vacuum.
XM.com, a big name among CFD brokers, still generates about 40 per cent of its homepage traffic from India, SimilarWeb data shows.
Although these are not ultimate indicators, nor do they suggest that half of the global FX/CFD volume or accounts come from India, they do show how popular CFD trading has become in the country.
India-specific data from brokers is rarely available. However, iForex, which is preparing to list itself publicly in London, revealed that India is its second-largest market, with 17 per cent of its revenue coming from there in 2024. The broker generated a total of $50 million in trading income in 2024, down from $77 million in 2022.
Also, the Indian unit of OctaFX, which is facing a crackdown in the country, generated around $93.4 million from its Indian operations over a nine-month period, according to the authorities. There are also estimates that OctaFX made over $568.1 million from India.
Many offshore brokers like Olymptrade and other binary-related brands are also heavily targeting the traders in India. Olymptrade, which also gets about 40 per cent of its traffic from India, according to SimilarWeb, even onboarded Brazilian football star Ronaldinho for promotion and dubbed the ad in heavy Indian-accented English.
Only a Small Piece of the Market Is Enough
India is home to 1.45 billion people, making it the most populous country in the world. However, its per capita GDP is only about $2,700. That does not mean the country does not have a lucrative market for retail trading.
In reality, wealth inequality in India is massive, with an extremely low baseline. Even if CFD brokers only target the top 5 per cent of the Indian population, that translates to 72.5 million people, who earn between $25,000 and $27,000 annually. The average income figure climbs to about $63,000 for the top 1 per cent of the population, which is 14.5 million people.
The Indian population also favours leveraged trading. Over the past 5 to 10 years, India’s domestic exchanges have transformed into the world’s busiest derivative trading venues. By early 2024, India was the world’s largest equity derivatives market, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of all equity derivative contracts traded globally (by volume of contracts).
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The most striking aspect of this boom is the influx of retail (individual) traders. Where institutions once dominated India’s derivative markets, retail investors now account for an estimated 40 per cent or more of trading activity. According to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and FIA data, the retail share of derivatives volume on exchanges climbed from only about 2 per cent in 2018 to about 40–41 per cent by 2023–24.
However, most Indian traders usually lose money in this zero-sum world of derivatives.
According to SEBI data, nearly 91 per cent of individual Indian futures and options traders lost money in the financial year 2025, which ended on 31 March. The net loss of individual traders widened by 41 per cent to around $12.37 billion.
The number of individual investors in the market was 6.14 million in the first quarter of FY25, but went down to about 4.27 million in the last quarter.
If any CFD broker taps into even a fraction of this market, it would generate massive revenue.
Nithin Kamath, the billionaire co-founder of Zerodha, a top broker in India, also voiced against the growing presence of CFDs brokers in India, noting that “these platforms blatantly sell greed and offer insane leverage (~100X) to attract users,” and “they are also incredibly scammy.”
CFD Brokers Operate in a Grey Area
Despite the potential, offering CFDs can be challenging for brokers, especially when navigating regulations. CFDs are not explicitly banned in the country, but it is the currency control rules that can make overseas brokers' operations illegal.
“If you look at the regulation, it clearly prohibits trading in CFDs or any transaction in CFDs,” explained Tajinder Virk, the CEO and co-founder of Finvasia Group, which owns CFD broker FXView among several other brands. “The Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) categorically calls it a criminal offence to use money for any currency transaction.”
“Another law, the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), under which Indians can invest in international markets, clearly prohibits investing in any marginable securities,” he added.
Two big Indian regulators – the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the SEBI – also have issued multiple warnings against trading them.
The RBI even maintains a long warning list including names of CFD brokers and even trading platform providers, such as MetaTrader.
Although the currency control laws make it tricky for CFD brokers to operate in the country, many operate there as the market is too lucrative to exit.
“The ground reality is different,” added Virk. “Some of forex brokers are operating in India like casinos, and they have been doing so in the past. They are operating via shell companies.”
Indian Anti-Money Laundering Police Are After CFD Brokers
Indian authorities are cracking down on CFD brokers. The most prominent case is the crackdown on the Indian unit of OctaFX. Authorities even worked with foreign law enforcement to seize and attach assets of Pavel Prozorov, described as “the mastermind behind the platform OctaFX.”
“The global broker Octa has no operational association with OctaFX India Private Limited,” an Octa representative told FinanceMagnates.com. “Claims suggesting otherwise are incorrect.” The representative also denied any connection between the global Octa and Prozorov.
The Indian anti-money laundering police also raided multiple locations of another CFD broker, ZaraFX (now known as Zarvista Capital Markets) last month, freezing its bank accounts and seizing mobile devices and a hard disk. Authorities also initiated an investigation against Jamsheer TV, CEO of ZaraFX.
A Zarvista spokesperson, however, denied having any offices or operational presence in India, adding: “We do not market our services to Indian residents, nor do we conduct regulated business activities within the country.”
“Both the company and our CEO will cooperate fully with the relevant authorities and are prepared to defend themselves vigorously against allegations that are entirely baseless and unsupported by evidence,” the representative added.
The Indian authorities’ crackdown against local operations of CFD brokers appears to be based on money laundering, which explains the involvement of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) rather than the RBI or SEBI.
In the case of OctaFX, the ED specified the money laundering charges. “Funds were routed through unauthorised payment aggregators and escrow accounts to create layers that hid ownership and the purpose of the transactions,” the ED said, while an Octa representative countered: “As with many global brokers, we use various payment systems to support transactions. However, we do not control these systems. Payment gateway URLs are generated by service providers under their own technical systems.”
Virk explained that many offshore businesses use local bookies in India who often act as agents accepting physical cash deposits from local clients. They provide access to payment terminals where clients can use the cash collected by these bookies.
FinanceMagnates.com also confirmed that some CFD brokers onboarding Indian clients use local payment methods, including Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which is a widely used local payment system. Some even have local bank account deposit options, mostly through IBs.
As none of these brokers operate locally in India, the question arises of how profits from the country are being moved to their offshore bases.
“The challenge here is that funds are leaving India without RBI approval, and for a purpose that the RBI explicitly prohibits,” Virk added. He further explained that Indian traders do not have enough legal awareness to understand that FEMA holds “the person sending the money at fault and not explicitly the one receiving the money.”
The provision in Indian law contrasts with those in the United States, where the law assumes only the person or entity receiving the money is at fault.
“Circumventing FEMA can lead to arrest,” Virk continued. “In practice, enforcement is less aggressive – after all, authorities cannot jail everyone – but the regulation itself remains quite draconian.”
