Nithin Kamath recently said that around 60% of Zerodha’s customers do not pay demat AMC because their holdings fall within the BSDA limit.
That sent me down a data rabbit hole.
India has approximately 23 crore demat accounts, but only around 13 crore unique investors are registered on NSE. The difference exists because one investor can hold multiple demat accounts.
There are also approximately 8.8 crore Basic Services Demat Accounts. Around 98% of them hold securities worth less than ₹4 lakh, placing them in the zero-AMC band.
But registration is still not activity.
According to NSE’s June 2026 Market Pulse, only 1.08 crore investors were active in the cash market in May 2026. NSE’s FY2025–26 data further shows that an average of approximately 37.4 lakh unique PANs per month recorded cash-market turnover above ₹1 lakh. I rounded this to 40 lakh in the video.
That ₹1 lakh is monthly turnover—not portfolio value or profit.
As a research analyst, I once thought the potential market could be 10–20 crore investors. But after filtering for people who actively invest, need research and may pay for it, the potential market could be closer to 20–50 lakh people.
India’s investor base has grown dramatically. But accounts opened, unique investors, monthly active investors and paying customers are four different numbers.
Demat accounts are like gym memberships: crores join, but very few actually show up.
Sources: Original video · NSE Market Pulse · NSDL Depository Statistics · CDSL periodic statistics
