In a recent blog, Nithin Kamath said that Zerodha had suffered a significant 40 per cent drop in its brokerage revenue in the June quarter of FY26, blaming recent regulatory changes that have impacted active options trading.
He said that the options business might be at further risk, with the regulators assessing whether to stop weekly options for good.
“If this were to happen, we would be forced to start charging brokerage for equity delivery trades to make the business tenable. Most of our competitors already charge for delivery trades,” Kamath said in the post, marking 15 years of Zerodha.
Zerodha has maintained zero brokerage fees for its users for years owing to its large customer base.
Kamath said that the situation is not in the firm’s control.
“In any case, most of this is not really under our control. How much we earn is dependent on market cycles, regulations, and other factors.”
Risk has crystallised
In the lengthy blog post, the Zerodha CEO noted that “there was always a risk of regulators questioning the utility of options turnover”.
“This risk has now crystallised with the increase in STT on options and the reduction of expiries to two weekly contracts on options,” Nithin Kamath said.
“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,” he added.
Kamath noted that the impact of these changes was felt during Q2FY25, with Zerodha taking a hit on its revenue eventually in the June FY26 quarter.
“The impact of all these changes started hitting us from October 2024, so the numbers don’t 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,” Kamath said.
