Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath on F&O mess: Indian markets look sane when compared to US

The CEO and co-founder of Zerodha Nithin Kamath, in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle today, noted that while there has been considerable discussion around India’s derivatives turnover, the country’s market still accounts for only about 25% of U.S. premiums, drawing attention to the scale and speculative nature of the U.S. financial markets.

“Despite all the discussions about the Indian derivative turnover, we are barely 25% of US premiums,” Kamath noted.




In his post, Kamath emphasized that this figure alone doesn't capture the full extent of speculative activity in the U.S. “These numbers don't give you a full picture of the crazy levels of gambling and speculation in the US,” he wrote.

He added that beyond exchange-traded derivatives, U.S. investors engage in a wide range of high-risk financial bets, including leveraged ETFs, crypto assets, prediction markets like Polymarket, sports betting, and more

“When you look at what's happening in the US and then look at India, our markets look so sane,” Kamath commented, contrasting the relative structure of Indian markets with what he described as the "crazy" breadth of speculative options available in the U.S.

Reacting to Kamath’s post, Hemang Jani, Founder and Director of Finazenn, offered further context on the scale of India’s derivatives market.

In a comment under the thread, Jani pointed out that India’s market cap is $4.8 trillion, compared to the U.S. market cap of $55 trillion. Given this gap, he said, India’s presence at around 25% of U.S. premium turnover is not small.

Jani also highlighted the significant base of active participants in India’s F&O segment, stating that India has approximately 85–90 lakh active derivatives traders while the U.S. has around 2.1 million.

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