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For many Indians, investing used to begin with the first job, the first salary and probably a conversation with their parents about mutual funds.
For Gen Z, it can happen much earlier. It might start with a crypto app, a stock they came across on Instagram, or a SIP started while they are still in college.
WazirX’s latest data shows just how young this new investor base is. The median age of its Gen Z investor is 25, and Gen Z accounted for 72% of new investors on the platform in the first half of 2026. Nearly 80% of them live outside India’s top 10 cities. So this is clearly not limited to the usual Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi crowd.
For 44.4% of these investors, crypto was their first step into investing. That says something about how different the starting point is today. A young person does not necessarily have to walk into a bank or wait for someone at home to explain where to put their savings. The phone is often the starting point.
And these are not people sitting on huge piles of money. Around 40% of WazirX’s Gen Z users are students, while nearly 80% earn between ₹1 lakh and ₹5 lakh a year. They are starting with small amounts, but they are starting early.
There is another side to this. Young investors are also more willing to experiment. CoinSwitch found that people aged 18 to 25 made up 54.4% of its new investors in Q2 2026. But their buy to sell ratio was 0.65, compared with 1.14 for investors aged 46 and above. In simple terms, younger investors are coming into the market in large numbers, but they are also more willing to sell and move around.
At the same time, the traditional investing habit is getting stronger. Mutual fund assets in India reached ₹73.73 lakh crore in March 2026, while monthly SIP contributions touched ₹31,961 crore in July.
So this is not really a story about Gen Z choosing crypto over mutual funds. It is about starting earlier.
A 22 year old today can have a SIP, hold Bitcoin, trade a stock and follow market news before they have even received their first full time salary. For older generations, investing was something you started when you had money. For Gen Z, it is increasingly something you start while you are still figuring out money.
