Mumbai, India (November 2025) — A Mumbai-based investor, Dr Aniruddha Malpani, has accused leading brokerage firm Zerodha of running a “scam” after he was unable to withdraw ₹5 crore from his trading account despite having a withdrawable balance of ₹18.46 crore.
Investor Alleges Funds Blocked Despite Large Balance
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Dr Malpani shared a screenshot of his Zerodha account showing:
Total holdings: ₹42.92 crore
Used margin: ₹24.46 crore
Withdrawable balance: ₹18.46 crore
According to Dr Malpani, despite the large balance, Zerodha refused to process his full withdrawal, citing a ₹5 crore daily withdrawal limit. He alleged that the brokerage was “using his money for free” while restricting access.
A screenshot from the Zerodha app displayed the message:
> “A maximum of Rs 5 crores can be withdrawn per day. For instant withdrawals, the request must be between Rs 100 and Rs 2,00,000 per day. The withdrawal limit is subject to the availability of withdrawable balance in the trading account.”
Zerodha Founder Nithin Kamath Clarifies
Responding to the allegations, Zerodha Co-Founder Nithin Kamath confirmed that Dr Malpani’s withdrawal request had already been processed the previous day.
Kamath explained that the ₹5 crore daily withdrawal cap is a security and operational safeguard:
> “We need to ensure, for the sake of our systems’ sanity (like all other financial services firms), that we have checks in place when clients withdraw funds. Once funds are paid out, there’s no way to reverse them. Hence, ₹5 crore is the threshold at which we ask customers to create a ticket to withdraw larger amounts.”
Zerodha’s support team also replied to the investor:
> “Hi Aniruddha, you can withdraw an amount greater than ₹5 crores by creating a ticket here. Please share the ticket number via DM and we’ll process it.”
Social Media Reactions
The issue quickly went viral on X, with thousands of users debating whether the situation reflected a genuine operational safeguard or poor user communication.
Many pointed out that most financial platforms — including major banks and brokers — impose daily withdrawal limits for security reasons. Others, however, questioned whether investors with balances in the tens of crores should use discount brokerages instead of premium wealth-management platforms.
While Zerodha clarified that high-value withdrawals require a manual request, the incident has sparked a broader discussion about transparency, fund accessibility, and investor experience in India’s rapidly growing retail broker Brokerage India.
