The ED just froze trading accounts holding about ₹200 crore in an alleged WhatsApp-driven pump and dump involving two listed companies. It's crazy that even in 2026, people still fall for stock tips on WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS, and social media. This is probably the silliest way to lose money. Given how late in the cycle we are, these instances are only going to increase. We're already seeing more pump and dumps, whether through WhatsApp groups or influencers peddling IPOs and stocks. This won't end well. So the next time you get a message promising easy money, just ask Claude or ChatGPT whether it's a good idea. It could save you a lot of money. It's become a cliché, but nowhere is "if it's too good to be true, it probably is" truer than in the stock market.

Our tech team has formed a nice collective that builds and maintains open-source software for public good. The "collective" is just the latest avatar of what we've been doing from day one. Over the years, we've built and open-sourced tools that are today used by everyone from governments to large companies. I don't think there's another company with such a small tech team (~35 people) that has shipped so many side projects that are now world-class, enterprise-grade open-source products. JP Nagar is the official FOSS capital of India 😛 Link in comments to check out all the projects.

For many years, people called Nikhil “Nithin.” But over the last 3–4 years, with the success of WTF, I’ve been called Nikhil exponentially more. Forget people just calling me Nikhil in person; I now get emails, LinkedIn messages, tweets, etc., addressed to Nikhil every day.😂​ This popularity was bound to happen. Right from when he was maybe 15 or 16, he was always the guy to go to for anything. He somehow always had connections, and the quality of those connections has only improved over time. ​For example, if I wanted to go out drinking, I’d ask him where to go, and he’d say, “Go to these places. There won’t be an entry fee, just tell the bouncer my name.” 😂​ But damn, I can’t believe he’s 40. For some reason, him turning 40 makes me feel so much older. 😬​ Happy 40th, @nikhilkamathcio. ❤️

When we started the discount brokerage (flat fee per trade) model in India in 2010, we decided to charge the same fee regardless of trade size. The logic was simple: if the effort to execute a trade is the same, why should customers pay differently? We applied the same logic to mutual funds. We didn't launch MFs until we could sell exclusively direct plans. You can't call yourself a discount or a low-cost broker if you charge a percentage fee on transactions, because there's no incremental effort in executing a larger order. This logic has informed all our product and pricing decisions from day one. Anyway, @CoinByZerodha today is the largest direct mutual funds platform in India, with nearly ₹1.6 lakh crores in direct MF AUM, and all our customers have saved thousands of crores in commissions. Direct mutual funds are a no-brainer if you're a DIY investor. It's interesting that most of the direct MF platforms that started when we launched Coin have either disappeared or pivoted to something else. The few remaining platforms are also rethinking their choice of offering direct plans. However, at Zerodha, we will continue to offer direct mutual funds for free. A lot of investors still don't know the difference between direct and regular plans. If you are investing in mutual funds, it's worth checking if your investments are in regular or direct plans. If you are in regular plans and want to switch to direct, we can help.