'We’d be back to 2019 levels...': Zerodha's Nithin Kamath fears F&O crash if weekly expiry is axed
Drawdown data mirrors the trend. From under 10% in June 2024, it spiked to over 40% by February 2025, showing increasing volatility and declining trader activity.
- Sep 15, 2025,
- Updated Sep 15, 2025 3:07 PM IST
Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath warned that India’s options market could be facing a major regulatory shake-up, as weekly options volumes continue to plunge, down nearly 40% since expiry cycles were halved in June.
Kamath’s comments came in a candid post on Monday, where he said he wouldn’t be surprised if weekly options were banned completely or made harder to access under a product suitability framework.
“I am as clueless as everybody else,” Kamath wrote, adding with a grin emoji, “But I would not be surprised if they were banned completely.”
His concerns are backed by data. A chart shared by Kamath shows that premium turnover from options — the combined figures from NSE and BSE — dropped from around ₹95,000 crore in June 2024 to under ₹60,000 crore by March 2025, a nearly 40% decline.
This sharp fall came despite a continuing bull market, underscoring the impact of the regulatory tweak that reduced weekly expiries from four to two.
Drawdown data mirrors the trend. From under 10% in June 2024, it spiked to over 40% by February 2025, showing increasing volatility and declining trader activity.
“Now imagine if the remaining two [weekly expiries] get removed,” Kamath added. “We’d be back to 2019 levels more or less.”
Kamath also highlighted the vulnerability of brokerage firms like Zerodha, which earn most of their revenue from traders — not long-term investors. “Regulatory risk is by far the biggest risk for brokers like us,” he said. “We earn almost nothing from investors.”
As a brokerage CEO, Kamath said he would support weekly expiries with added guardrails. But he also acknowledged that from a regulator’s standpoint, “completely removing weekly expiries” might be justifiable.
With India still holding the title of the world’s largest derivatives market, Kamath cautioned against simplistic comparisons to U.S. markets, referencing an earlier post to stress the structural differences.
Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath warned that India’s options market could be facing a major regulatory shake-up, as weekly options volumes continue to plunge, down nearly 40% since expiry cycles were halved in June.
Kamath’s comments came in a candid post on Monday, where he said he wouldn’t be surprised if weekly options were banned completely or made harder to access under a product suitability framework.
“I am as clueless as everybody else,” Kamath wrote, adding with a grin emoji, “But I would not be surprised if they were banned completely.”
His concerns are backed by data. A chart shared by Kamath shows that premium turnover from options — the combined figures from NSE and BSE — dropped from around ₹95,000 crore in June 2024 to under ₹60,000 crore by March 2025, a nearly 40% decline.
This sharp fall came despite a continuing bull market, underscoring the impact of the regulatory tweak that reduced weekly expiries from four to two.
Drawdown data mirrors the trend. From under 10% in June 2024, it spiked to over 40% by February 2025, showing increasing volatility and declining trader activity.
“Now imagine if the remaining two [weekly expiries] get removed,” Kamath added. “We’d be back to 2019 levels more or less.”
Kamath also highlighted the vulnerability of brokerage firms like Zerodha, which earn most of their revenue from traders — not long-term investors. “Regulatory risk is by far the biggest risk for brokers like us,” he said. “We earn almost nothing from investors.”
As a brokerage CEO, Kamath said he would support weekly expiries with added guardrails. But he also acknowledged that from a regulator’s standpoint, “completely removing weekly expiries” might be justifiable.
With India still holding the title of the world’s largest derivatives market, Kamath cautioned against simplistic comparisons to U.S. markets, referencing an earlier post to stress the structural differences.