UNDERSTAND
Risk assessment
Goals, horizon, risk appetite. The mandate is written down before anything is bought.
MANDATE · IN WRITING
Digital-asset advisory · From a 1993 practice
Crypto,owned like an asset,
Long-term portfolios in your own name, researched, tax-planned, and held with the patience of a 1993 practice.
An endless cycle: an investment chart draws itself, each candlestick becomes one of the six discipline medallions, researched, in your own name, tax-planned, sized, exits written, held long. The lowest medallion leads the others in a clockwise line onto a circle, the chart fades, the TWIS emblem settles into a drawn metal vessel at the centre while a light circles the ring igniting each discipline, and then the disciplines are absorbed back into the mark, which lingers as a faint backdrop while the chart begins to draw again.
First, the misconception
“Is crypto banned in India?”No. It isn’t.
Buying, holding and selling crypto is legal in India. Legal, taxed, reported, just not yet regulated, which is exactly why discipline matters. The proof plays below.
Why crypto, why now
Why invest in crypto now?The world’s biggest money already has.
The biggest institutions moved in. Governments wrote rules, not bans. India adopted fastest of all.
Institutions are in. The rules exist. Adoption is here. What remains is doing it properly.
The honest record
The market moves in cycles.
Enter in the quiet. Exit into strength. Sit the winters out. The last decade, drawn honestly below.
Bitcoin · Jul 2016 → today
In the marketStanding aside
An illustration of cycle discipline on Bitcoin’s price history (log scale), not client results. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Source: Yahoo Finance · CoinGecko daily closes · As of 24 Jul 2026
Bitcoin’s rupee price over the decade, read as investment cycles: enter July 2016, exit the December 2017 peak at 28 times the entry; stand aside through the 2018 winter, which fell 81 percent; re-enter December 2018 and exit the November 2021 peak at 21 times; skip the 2022 winter, down 74 percent; re-enter November 2022 and exit the October 2025 high at 8.6 times. Today the price sits 44 percent below that high. This is an illustration of cycle discipline on market history, not a record of client trades. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
The decade ledger
Ten years, five assets.
₹10 lakh · Jul 2016 → Jul 2026 · before tax
- Bitcoin₹14.1 Cr64.0%
- Gold₹42.4 L15.6%
- Nifty 50 (TRI)₹30.8 L11.9%
- Fixed deposit₹18.8 L6.5%
- Inflation (CPI)₹16.2 L4.9%
Historical values, before tax. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Sources: Yahoo Finance · NIFTYBEES / GOLDBEES adj. closes · RBI FD rates · MoSPI CPI · As of 24 Jul 2026
The last full cycle
We enter early in the cycle.
₹10 lakh · 2020 halving → Dec 2023
| Stage | Date | ₹10 L became |
|---|---|---|
| EnterThe halving window | May 2020 | ₹10 L |
| ExitThe exit window | Nov 2021 | ₹76.9 L7.7× |
| The crashSat it out | Nov 2022 | ₹19.8 L−74% |
| Next windowAccumulation resumes | Dec 2023 | ₹54 L |
Source: Yahoo Finance · CoinGecko daily closes · As of 24 Jul 2026
A 10-year monthly SIP made 11.6×, not the 141× of a lump sumGains taxed flat 30% + 1% TDS · no loss set-offOver the five years to Jul 2026, gold actually beat Bitcoin, windows matter
Bitcoin in INR, Jul 2016 → Jul 2026 windows · Yahoo Finance · CoinGecko · As of 24 Jul 2026
How we operate
From your goals to your exit.
Seven standing disciplines, this is how the desk runs a mandate. No improvisation, no guesswork.
DESIGN
Portfolio design
An allocation suited to you: majors anchored, alternatives researched, the tier agreed together.
STEADY · BALANCED · AGGRESSIVE
ENTER
Investment
Disciplined, cycle-aware entries. No chasing, no averaging into a broken thesis.
ENTRY · CYCLE-AWARE
WATCH
Monitoring
Every position tracked continuously against the written case that bought it.
WATCH · CONTINUOUS
ADJUST
Rebalancing
Weights adjusted as cycles shift. Never as headlines do.
WEIGHTS · BY RULE
REPORT
Review
Regular check-ins with you, the portfolio explained in plain language.
CHECK-IN · SCHEDULED
EXIT
Exit
Planned, unemotional selling at the levels set on day one.
EXIT · SET ON DAY ONE
The mandate
Two ways to hold crypto.
1
The leverage casino way.
2
Risk calculated first, rules written before a rupee moves.
1 · Leveraged futures, where most lose
2 · The written mandate, entries & exits in writing
Roughly four-fifths of domestic crypto volume trades as leveraged futures, where the large majority of participants lose, the pattern exchange data and regulator studies keep documenting. As of Jul 2026.
You already have the temperament. The framework, these ten commitments, is the product.
Before you sign anything
The questions that matter
Yes. Buying, holding and selling crypto is legal in India. It is not legal tender and not regulated, so there is no SEBI or RBI recourse if something goes wrong. Exchanges serving Indians must register with FIU-IND under anti-money-laundering law, and from April 2026 they report transactions to the tax department.
One test cuts through: the guaranteed return. We never promise one. Anyone who does is the scam. Assets stay in accounts held in your own name, we transact only on FIU-IND-registered venues, and every fee is stated in writing before you commit to anything.
India's exchange hacks were custody failures, not Bitcoin failures. The loss lived where the coins were held. So long-term holdings move off-exchange into wallets in your own name, and only working balances sit on FIU-registered venues. We never hold your keys.
The 30% applies to gains, not to holding. A long-term allocation pays it once, at exit; a trader pays on every profitable trade and cannot set off losses. India's tax code punishes exactly the behaviour we avoid. A known, fixed, plannable cost beats a hidden one.
We won't argue the volatility away. This is the third major winter in a decade, and our own chart above shows all of them. The answer is position size and cycle discipline: small allocations, staged entries, written exits. Cycles are the strategy, not the obstacle.
Less than you might think. Institutional research supports low single-digit percentages of a portfolio, sized so that even a severe drawdown cannot change your life. The exact number depends on your horizon and temperament, and it is agreed in writing before anything is bought.
We treat succession as part of the mandate: nominee registration wherever venues support it, a written asset register, and holdings included in your will. Unmanaged keys die with their owner. A documented plan does not.
No one can promise future policy, and we won't. But the Supreme Court struck down the last banking ban in 2020, the State taxes crypto, and from 2026 it requires exchanges to report every transaction, a parliamentary panel now recommends regulation, not prohibition. We size positions so policy risk stays survivable either way.
Research-screened majors only. Every asset must clear four checks (technology, team, tokenomics and market cycle) before it can enter any portfolio. No pre-sale tokens, no launches, no meme rotations, and no asset we cannot explain to you in plain language.
The desk
Three names answer for this page.
Rupesh Talati
Founder & Chairman, TWIS · Since 1993
Three decades of advisory practice, the standard this desk answers to.
Dev Talati
Founder & CEO
Research and portfolio construction.
Yax Sheth
Co-Founder
Tokenomics and market strategy.
Written by the TWIS crypto desk, Dev Talati and Yax Sheth. Held to the standard Rupesh Talati set in 1993.
Last reviewed · Figures as of their labelled dates
Statutory disclaimer
Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions.
Begin with a conversation.
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