CoinSwitch Just Went Zero-Fee – Is This the End for Crypto Costs in India?

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After WazirX & CoinDCX, CoinSwitch Enters India’s Crypto Zero-Fee Battle

Key Highlights

  • CoinSwitch has posted on X, indicating a move toward zero or heavily reduced trading fees on its platform.
  • This makes it the third major Indian exchange to signal fee elimination, after WazirX launched its ₹99/month ZERO subscription in December 2025 and CoinDCX teased a similar play on March 10.
  • Indian traders already pay a flat 30% tax on crypto gains plus 1% TDS per transaction, making platform fees one of the few costs that exchanges can actually control.

As an analyst tracking the Indian crypto market, I’m seeing strong signals that CoinSwitch, currently the largest crypto app in India with over 20 million users, is about to eliminate trading fees. They’ve made a couple of posts on X that heavily hint at this change. While they haven’t officially announced a permanent zero-fee structure, the way they’ve communicated it suggests it’s highly likely.

Our trading fees vary depending on how much you trade each month. For regular spot trading, fees range from 0.04% to 0.4%. Futures trading has a maker fee of 0.02% and a taker fee of 0.05%. Options trading starts at 0.015%. We’ve also occasionally offered zero-fee trading for certain cryptocurrencies, like XRP/USDT and ETH/USDT, for limited times.

Download CoinSwitch and start trading:

— CoinSwitch: India’s Simplest Crypto App 🚀 (@CoinSwitch) March 16, 2026

Cutting fees permanently and across the board would be a major change for the Bengaluru-based exchange. The company, which is supported by investors like a16z, Tiger Global, and Sequoia Capital India, was recently valued at $1.9 billion.

No official pricing details, launch date, or product structure have been confirmed yet.

This didn’t start with CoinSwitch

The recent battle over trading fees started in October 2025, after WazirX reopened following a 16-month pause in operations. The platform had initially shut down in July 2024 due to a security issue – a $230 million hack believed to be connected to the Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking organization – which resulted in the loss of almost half of its funds and a halt to all withdrawals.

WazirX relaunched on October 24, 2025, offering fee-free trading for the first month. This wasn’t a generous offer, but a necessary move to win back users. During its downtime, many had moved their business to competitors like CoinDCX, CoinSwitch, and exchanges outside of India, and WazirX needed to regain their trust and attract them back.

As of late November, we officially launched WazirX ZERO, a new subscription plan at WazirX. For just ₹99 per month—about a dollar—users can trade any amount of crypto across our 300+ tokens without paying any per-trade fees. As the founder, Nischal Shetty, explained, this model is designed to remove the burden of fees with every single trade.

Indian cryptocurrency traders spend a significant amount – thousands of crores of rupees each year – on fees for buying and selling crypto. WazirX was the first Indian exchange to offer the possibility of eliminating those fees entirely.

Then CoinDCX joined in

People quickly and overwhelmingly noticed that CoinDCX, an Indian cryptocurrency company worth over $1 billion since 2021, is planning to reduce its fees.

CoinDCX charges a 0.2% fee for both buying and selling cryptocurrencies on its spot market. While this is comparable to other Indian exchanges, it’s becoming less competitive as WazirX offers lower fees, and international exchanges like Bitget have rates as low as 0.08%. The average taker fee globally is around 0.194%.

The exchange hasn’t said if its recent announcement relates to trading fees. However, the use of ‘0’ in the announcement, along with when it was made, has made guessing about the details pointless. The market has already reacted as if fees are being reduced or eliminated.

The part that matters more than fees

Here’s what none of the announcements address: where does the money come from once fees disappear?

It’s costly to operate a cryptocurrency exchange in India that follows all the rules. The three main platforms all register with FIU-IND and must follow strict ‘Know Your Customer’ and anti-money laundering procedures, achieve ISO certifications, securely store customer funds, and undergo regular audits. CoinDCX, for example, covered a $44 million hack in July 2025 using its own funds. CoinSwitch also has strong security measures, including SOC 2 Type II certification and regularly proves it holds enough reserves to cover customer holdings. Maintaining these standards isn’t easy or inexpensive.

Traditionally, trading fees have been the main way these three exchanges make money. WazirX’s new monthly subscription model only works if a large number of users sign up. Even if only a small portion of its 16 million registered users subscribe, the income would still be much lower than what they’d earn from standard percentage-based fees. CoinSwitch and CoinDCX are in the same situation.

The strategy isn’t new. Robinhood made stock trading without commissions popular in the U.S., fundamentally changing how brokerages work. They also secretly profited by selling information about their users’ trades to firms that execute those orders – a practice that has faced criticism and regulatory investigation.

India’s stock exchanges need to develop their own strategies to increase profits. They could explore options like increasing the difference between buying and selling prices, offering premium membership levels, relying more on futures trading revenue, adjusting margins for options trading, or expanding into related financial products – similar to how CoinSwitch’s Lemonn platform offers stock investments. However, no specific plans have been announced yet.

What it means for the Indian trader, right now

If you’re a trader who buys and sells ₹10,000 worth of cryptocurrency each day on an exchange with a 0.2% fee, you’ll typically pay around ₹600 in fees each month. WazirX ZERO lowers that cost to just ₹99. If other platforms like CoinSwitch and CoinDCX can offer fees at or below that price, traders will see significant and instant savings.

This is important because crypto investors in India already face some of the highest taxes globally. They pay a flat 30% tax on profits without being able to deduct losses or carry them forward, and 1% is automatically deducted from each transaction. This makes trading in India much more expensive than in most other countries. When you add the 0.2% to 0.5% fees charged by exchanges, these costs quickly add up, making it difficult to trade.

Removing platform fees is a key way exchanges can help ease the challenges traders face. It doesn’t affect how taxes are calculated, but it allows frequent traders more flexibility and encourages occasional investors to participate.

The bigger picture

Just half a year ago, leading Indian cryptocurrency exchanges didn’t offer fee-free trading as a standard option. Now, all of them are either currently providing it, hinting at its upcoming release, or suggesting they plan to do so.

How quickly this change is happening reveals a lot about the future of the Indian market. With more than 30 million users combined on these three platforms, competition for customers is fierce.

When most exchanges offer nearly identical products and services – the same tokens, similar leverage options, and comparable security measures – price is what really sets them apart and drives competition.

The big question is whether all three companies can keep this up long-term. Or will intense competition over fees eventually lead to mergers, buyouts, or a return to previous pricing strategies once things calm down?

Right now, crypto traders in India are benefiting the most. However, whether this continues will depend on how exchanges adapt and find new ways to make money after losing their previous revenue streams.

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2026-03-16 15:10