NRI Crypto Regulations: What Non-Resident Indians Need to Know

When it comes to NRI crypto regulations, the rules governing how Non-Resident Indians trade, hold, or invest in cryptocurrencies while living abroad. Also known as Indian diaspora crypto rules, these aren’t written in a single law—they’re built from RBI circulars, tax notices, and enforcement actions that change quietly behind the scenes. If you’re an NRI buying Bitcoin from Dubai, trading Ethereum from the U.S., or sending crypto back to India, you’re operating in a legal gray zone that’s getting tighter every year.

The Reserve Bank of India never banned crypto outright, but it made it nearly impossible for banks to serve crypto businesses. That rule still stands. So while you can buy crypto on international exchanges like Binance or Kraken, you can’t link your Indian bank account to it. That means if you try to send rupees to an Indian exchange like WazirX or CoinDCX, your transaction will likely get blocked. And if you send crypto to an Indian wallet—say, from your U.S. wallet to your sibling’s wallet in Bangalore—you’re triggering tax reporting rules under the Income Tax Act. The government tracks crypto transactions through the 1% TDS rule on sales, and they’re cross-referencing that data with foreign bank disclosures under FATCA.

There’s no official list of approved crypto platforms for NRIs, but the ones that work are the ones that don’t ask for an Indian address. If you’re living in the U.K., Canada, or Singapore, you can use global exchanges without issue—as long as you don’t try to cash out into an Indian bank. But if you’re trying to use an Indian exchange from abroad, even with a foreign SIM card or VPN, you’re risking account freezes. The Enforcement Directorate has already frozen wallets linked to NRIs who moved crypto into India after selling it overseas. And don’t assume your foreign income is safe: India taxes global income for NRIs who are still considered tax residents under the 182-day rule. If you spent more than half the year in India last year, you owe taxes on your crypto gains—even if you never touched rupees.

What you’ll find below are real cases, not theories. We’ve pulled together posts that show exactly how NRIs are getting caught, which exchanges still work without KYC, how tax filings are changing, and what happens when you try to send crypto to India. Some of these stories are about people who lost money because they trusted a platform that claimed to be "NRI-friendly." Others are about people who paid taxes correctly and avoided trouble. There’s no magic workaround. But there are clear paths—if you know where to look.