Report contents
APAC · Developing
India
Crypto Livability Index 2025·data to 31 Dec 2025
Scoreboard
Five pillars, then the 22 sub-pillars scored 0 to 4. Empty sub-scores are held out of the total, not zeroed.
The number behind the rank
| Raw capability score | 53 / 84 |
| P2P liquidity bonus (tie-breaker) | +4 |
| Inflation 4% · unbanked 11% · remittances 3.5% GDP · capital controls 0.84 · sanctions 0 | CNI 0.234 |
| Need multiplier | ×0.851 |
| Livability score | 0.537 |
Raw 53/84 = 0.631 capability. Crypto-Necessity Index 0.23, from five components: inflation 4% (three-year average 2023 to 2025), unbanked 11% of adults, remittances 3.5% of GDP, capital-control intensity 0.84 (KAOPEN 2023), sanctions exposure 0. Need multiplier ×0.85. Livability score 0.537, rank #20 of 79.
Three findings
Need lifts India 24 places, from #44 to #20
India ranks #44 on raw capability but climbs to #20 once need is applied, on the strength of grassroots demand: it has held the top spot on the global adoption index for three straight years, with the largest P2P USDT-INR market in the world, deeply integrated with the UPI payment rail. The capability is held down by the harshest tax regime in the sample, but the underlying usage is unmatched.
The most expensive crypto tax in the index, and it is still legal
India levies a flat 30% on gains, 31.2% with cess, plus a 1% tax deducted at source on every single transfer, with no loss offset and no holding-period relief. The 1% deduction is a severe operational drain, but taxation implies legality: the Finance Act 2022 formally defined crypto as a Virtual Digital Asset, which is why legal status scores 3 while tax scores 1.
Bills payable, cards blocked: the rails are uneven
India hits a perfect 4 on utility bills because the BBPS rail covers all six categories nationally and Zypto settles them in rupees from crypto, yet crypto cards score 0 because the central bank bars banks from issuing them. The result is one of the widest internal spreads in the spending pillar.
In one line
"India taxes crypto harder than almost anyone on Earth and has still led the world in adoption three years running. When a tool is this useful to this many people, even a 30% tax cannot push them off it."
Watch in 2026
Trajectory 2/4, stable to mixed. The 30% tax and 1% deduction at source carried unchanged through the 2025 to 2026 Union Budget, and the financial-intelligence unit issued show-cause notices to nine offshore exchanges, with Binance, OKX and KuCoin blocked. Against that, a discussion paper informed by IMF and FSB work is pending and courts have recognised crypto as property, leaving the net direction genuinely mixed rather than tightening toward a ban.