{"id":428936,"date":"2025-09-30T12:28:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T06:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zerodha.com\/z-connect\/?p=428936"},"modified":"2025-10-24T17:09:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:39:54","slug":"15-years-of-zerodha-the-risk-crystallises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zerodha.com\/z-connect\/business-updates\/15-years-of-zerodha-the-risk-crystallises","title":{"rendered":"15 years of Zerodha \u2014 The risk crystallises"},"content":{"rendered":"

We turned 15 on August 15, 2025.\u00a0<\/span>Firstly, about my stroke from last January, I have recovered about 90%. I still face some issues while speaking, with the inability to articulate all the thoughts that come to my mind. All my skill levels from reading, speaking, singing, playing the guitar, writing, etc., had gone down close to zero when it happened, but they have been slowly returning with practice and time. As I had mentioned in <\/span>last year\u2019s post<\/span><\/a>, what doesn\u2019t kill you makes you stronger, and everything in life is a learning opportunity. \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

The Risk Crystallises<\/span><\/h2>\n

\n“Another year where I was pessimistic about the business has passed, and it\u2019s been another year where I\u2019ve been pleasantly surprised. \ud83d\ude42 That said, the regulatory actions, be it the drop in transaction charges revenue, the increase in STT on F&O, the proposal to make futures and options trading tougher, ASBA for trading, the increase in BSDA limit, etc., will have a significant impact on our revenues and profitability. The time has finally come for business to pivot.”<\/span><\/i>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wrote this in a post on our internal forum. If you look at all my updates from the last few years, I have generally been pessimistic about the industry’s future. This is because almost every brokerage business model relies on earnings from active traders who trade options.<\/span><\/p>\n

With retail option volumes skyrocketing, there was always a risk of regulators questioning the utility of options turnover, whether they help in capital formation, and doing something to curb options trading. As I have said in the past, 90% of traders lose money, and this ratio is very similar to those starting a business, playing a sport, or making music for a living, or anything that is competitive. What is unique about trading is that it’s very easy to get started, unlike starting a business.<\/span><\/p>\n

This risk has now crystallised with the increase in STT on options and the reduction of expiries to two weekly contracts on options. Along with these changes, the increase in the BSDA (Basic Services Demat Account) limit, the removal of the exchange transaction charges rebate, and a general drop in market activity, our revenues and profits took a hit last year, as we had expected.<\/span><\/p>\n

The impact of all these changes started hitting us from October 2024, so the numbers don\u2019t fully reflect in the financial year 2024\/25. This year, we are seeing a substantial hit of about 40% in brokerage revenues in the latest quarter (June 2025) compared to the same quarter last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Video AMA<\/h2>\n