As one of the key brokerage houses of the country, Zerodha encountered a major hit, with reports pouring in of a steep fall in its brokerage revenue for the first quarter of FY26. In a blog post celebrating the stockbroking platform’s 15th anniversary, founder Nithin Kamath hinted it was time for the “business to pivot” as it suffered a 40% slump in brokerage revenue compared to where it stood last year.
Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath on brokerage revenue fall
A graph seen in the post maps out Zerodha total revenue for the year ending March 2025 is estimated at about Rs 8,500 crore, with net profit at around Rs 4,000 crore. Meanwhile, the platform reported a revenue of Rs 9,994.5 crore and a net profit of Rs 5,493.4 crore, as per Tracxn.
“From 2021, I had been tweeting about the risks to the broking business, but somehow I kept getting surprised on the upside. But starting around October last year, all the risks I was thinking about crystallised. First came the STT increase on options, then the removal of exchange transaction charge rebates, and a reduction in weekly expiries,” Kamath wrote on X.
“In addition to this, there was a significant decline in market activity. Due to all these factors, our revenues and profits suffered a decline. This year, we are seeing a drop in broking revenues of about ~40%.”
Kamath praises Zerodha’s self-sufficient stance
Despite the drop in revenue, the Zerodha founder said that never checked on quarterly or even yearly growth because the platform was possibly the only broker in the world “luxury of thinking long-term and continuing to do what’s right for our customers despite short-term business volatility.” He attributed this privilege to the absence of both external investors and pressures pushing the brokerage platform to go against its mapped-out plans.
Link to the full post: https://t.co/7HMbRI7gjY
— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) September 30, 2025
The toll on Zerodha’s revenue came after multiple changes, including higher securities transaction tax (STT) on option, elimination of exchange fee rebates and rise in the Basic Services Demat Account (BSDA) limit, among other factors.
More will be added.
