Is Monero legal in India? The rules in 2026

As of November 2026, owning Monero isn’t illegal in India. The Supreme Court struck down the Reserve Bank of India’s 2018 banking curbs on crypto in 2020,^[1] and India taxes crypto gains at 30% instead of banning the coins.^[2] Buying Monero has got harder, though: Kraken has delisted it for clients in India,^[3] and the Indian exchange Mudrex dropped privacy tokens in January 2026, citing FIU-IND’s updated rules.^[4]

Is Monero banned in India?

No. In April 2018 the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) told the banks and other entities it regulates not to deal with, or provide services to, anyone dealing in virtual currencies, and to exit any such relationships. On 4 March 2020, in Internet and Mobile Association of India v Reserve Bank of India, the Supreme Court set that circular aside on the ground of proportionality.^[1] The court accepted that the RBI has wide powers, including to act pre-emptively, but found it had not shown any damage suffered by the entities it regulates. It also noted that the RBI’s “consistent stand” was that it had not banned virtual currencies.^[1]

In May 2021 the RBI told banks that the 2018 circular “is no longer valid from the date of the Supreme Court judgement” and could not be cited. It said they could keep carrying out customer due diligence under the know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules.^[5]

When the court ruled, it noted that committees had put several proposals to the government, including two draft bills that took opposite positions, and that the government had not decided between them.^[1] The rules that apply to Monero today come from anti-money-laundering law and the Income-tax Act, covered below. Our country-by-country guide covers other countries.

Do crypto exchanges in India have to register with FIU-IND?

Yes. A government notification dated 7 March 2023 brought crypto businesses under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) when they act for others in the course of business. The activities it lists include exchanging virtual digital assets (VDAs) for fiat currency or for other VDAs, transferring them, and keeping them safe for customers.^[6] These businesses must register with the Financial Intelligence Unit–India (FIU-IND) as reporting entities.^[6]

Offshore exchanges aren’t exempt. FIU-IND sent Binance a show-cause notice on 28 December 2023 for serving Indian clients without meeting its PMLA obligations, and on 19 June 2024 fined it ₹18.82 crore.^[7]

FIU-IND’s first guidelines for these businesses, effective 10 March 2023, told them to treat “Anonymity-Enhanced Cryptocurrencies” as an area exposed to money-laundering and terrorist-financing risk.^[6] Monero is built to hide the sender, receiver and amount of each payment; our guide to how private Monero is explains how. The guidelines also classed transfers to or from unhosted (self-custody) wallets as high risk, with the compliance duty on the registered business that hosts the other wallet.^[6]

They noted too that exchanges must report VDA transfers to the tax department in Form 26QF under section 194S, including the buyer’s name and PAN (tax ID number), the value and number of VDAs transferred and the date.^[6] FIU-IND published an updated version of the guidelines on 8 January 2026.^[8] A compliance consultancy’s summary of the update says registered businesses “must not permit deposits or withdrawals” of anonymity-enhancing crypto tokens, which it describes as assets designed to conceal origin, ownership or transaction value.^[9]

Can you buy Monero on Indian exchanges?

It has become harder. Kraken says it has delisted Monero (XMR), Dash and Zcash for clients residing in India as part of its regular asset reviews. Its notice says deposits, trading and withdrawals have stopped, and remaining balances were liquidated.^[3]

The Indian exchange Mudrex announced it would delist all privacy tokens from 30 January 2026. It said FIU-IND’s updated guidelines require crypto platforms to “delist privacy-focused tokens”. Its list named Zcash, Dash and PIVX; Monero wasn’t on it. Mudrex said these tokens couldn’t be sold on its platform after that date and that any remaining holdings would be sold automatically at the market price.^[4] For the wider pattern, see our guide to why exchanges delist Monero.

How is Monero taxed in India?

Indian tax law calls crypto and similar assets virtual digital assets. Gains from transferring them are taxed at a flat 30%, plus surcharge and 4% cess, under section 115BBH of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and you report each transaction in Schedule VDA of your income tax return.^[2]

The department’s filing guidance for 2024–25 returns says losses can’t be set off against VDA income. It also says the sale amounts you report must be no less than the gross receipts shown against tax deducted at source (TDS) under section 194S in your Form 26AS tax statement.^[10]

The Income Tax Act, 2025 replaced the 1961 Act from 1 April 2026. The government says the rewrite kept tax rates unchanged. It grouped the TDS rules under a single section, 393, and widened the definition of VDAs to cover any asset that holds value in digital form and runs on cryptographic ledger technology.^[11]

What has changed, and when?

For nearby rules, see our guides for Australia and the UK.