Women investors accounted for over 13% of crypto futures traders and their average leverage remained lower than that of male traders, according to a release by Giottus analysing its 1.3-million-strong customer base during the September 2025-May 2026 period.

The release further said that women traders also showed a stronger preference for XRP, Bitcoin, and gold-linked assets.

Also Read |Quant Small Cap Fund exits RIL, 8 others; raises exposure to two Adani stocks. Check full list Nearly half of the country’s crypto futures participation now comes from tier-2 cities even as futures trading has overtaken spot volumes. Crypto Futures contributed 57.22% of total platform trading volume, ahead of spot at 42.78%. At the same time, 48% of futures participants came from tier-2 cities, compared with 31% from tier-1 locations, and 21% from other locations.

The figures point to a broader shift in Indian crypto trading behaviour. Leveraged products (like futures) are no longer driven mainly by metro traders. The smaller-city participation is now emerging as a major force in crypto derivatives activity.

The report also showed strong acceleration in user growth during 2026. Futures participation grew 42.5% in February. It rose another 28.5% in March. April recorded 35.3% growth. In May, it was 30.3%.
Futures users currently account for only 24% of Giottus’ active user base. The data suggests there is still considerable expansion headroom within existing platform users.“India’s crypto participation story is becoming geographically broader. We are seeing increasing engagement from smaller cities in products that were once viewed as niche or high-complexity,” said Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus.

The dataset further showed unusually high engagement intensity among active traders. Average trades per active user peaked at 330 trades in January 2026. Even after moderation in April, users still averaged more than 51 trades a month. The figure was 45 in May.

Another major behavioural trend emerged in trading preferences. Bitcoin and Ethereum together accounted for only 15.35% of total Futures volume during the review period.

Ethereum accounted for 7.07% of the traded Futures volume. Solana accounted for 5.76% and XRP contributed 5.24%.

The figures suggest Indian retail traders are increasingly moving beyond Bitcoin exposure into higher-volatility altcoin opportunities. Trading behaviour appears to be becoming more tactical and event-driven.

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Tamil Nadu emerged as the dominant regional market in the dataset. The state contributed 46.6% of all futures traders. It also accounted for 59.26% of the platform’s total Futures trading volume. Kerala contributed 10.23% of the total trading volume.

The report also showed relatively balanced market positioning among traders. Long positions accounted for 52.79% of trades and short positions accounted for 47.21%.

Average leverage among Giottus Futures traders stood at 10x. More than 30% of trades used leverage above 10x. Despite that, monthly liquidation ratios ranged between 0.55% and 2.52% during the review period.

“The liquidation trends are important because they suggest participation is not entirely speculative or reckless. Users are showing greater awareness around position sizing and risk management while using leveraged products,” Vikram said.

The report further showed that Indian retail traders were most active between 7 pm and 10 pm. The lowest trading activity was recorded between 3 am and 6 am. The pattern reflects post-work retail participation and overlap with US market hours.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Nunn says the key to building up savings is to automate putting money aside.

This means regular saving will stop being a decision or action you have to keep taking – and putting off.

“If you’re able to carve out a little bit and put it somewhere else where you won’t have access to it and be able to spend it, I think that’s the easiest way to start having a saving mindset,” he says.

That could mean setting up a direct debit from your current account to a savings account, organising cash into different envelopes or using round-up tools that put spare change aside when you spend.

Nunn recommends “saving little, saving early and saving regularly”.

He admits he “hates budgeting and always has” so he says he looks at his current account as soon as he gets paid and decides how much he wants to move into savings. “Do it as soon as you can,” he adds.

As well as savings, he recommends having an emergency fund for surprise bills like a broken boiler or car repairs. How much you need in the fund depends on your circumstances but he advises having one to three months’ salary set aside if you can.

Meanwhile, as the new AI boom takes hold, the tale of who gets to stay in San Francisco and who doesn’t is told by its residents.

Two San Francisco families with school-aged children, who both asked for anonymity to protect their privacy, recently succeeded in buying move-in-ready single-family homes to meet their desperate needs for more space – but only one was able to do so in the city.

That family was able to purchase in the desirable family-friendly neighbourhood where they had been long-term renters after one parent, who works at OpenAI, sold some company shares last October, giving the family the financial boost needed to buy in an all-cash offer.

The couple say they feel “conflicted and self-conscious” that it is AI money that has made it possible. “We’re not ostentatious people,” they add. “We’ve just done what we can with the opportunity.”

In contrast, the other family, which doesn’t derive its income from AI or the tech world, had to instead move to a more suburban Bay Area town to the north.

Their new home, bought in part with a mortgage, includes a pool and extra land.

It is a different kind of life, notes the mother, and they have mostly adapted now – though it involves a long commute for her husband, who has a senior government job in San Francisco, and they still have “what if” moments.

“We wouldn’t have left if we could have afforded to stay,” she reflects. “It kind of sucks and I do get a little salty seeing all this extra AI money squeeze everyone else out.”

The Duboce Triangle flat, for the record, and according to its listing agent, sold for $3.2m – $200,000 over the asking price. Whether the deal included AI stock is confidential.

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Markets regulator Sebi has replaced the existing US dollar-denominated registration fee for Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) and Foreign Venture Capital Investors (FVCIs) with a rupee-denominated fee structure.

To implement the change, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has amended the rules governing FPIs. The revised provisions will come into effect after six months, Sebi said in its notification.

Through a notification issued on July 3, Sebi revised the registration fee for Category-I FPIs and FVCIs from USD 2,500 to Rs 2.3 lakh.

The markets watchdog has also updated the common application form used for FPI registration. The regulator mandated the inclusion of the applicant’s date of birth or date of incorporation in the common application form to facilitate Permanent Account Number (PAN) allotment.

Additionally, Designated Depository Participants (DDPs) must remit the collected registration fees to Sebi within five working days of being granted registration.

“Every designated depository participant shall remit the fees collected from the foreign portfolio investors in INR to the Board in the case of initial registration, within five working days from the date of grant of certificate of registration to the foreign portfolio investor, along with the details in the format, as may be specified from time to time,” Sebi said.

Taco Bell is expanding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) at drive-thrus and announced a new strategic partnership with an AI voice provider.

The fast food giant on Tuesday announced the expansion of a partnership with Omilia, a provider of a voice AI platform that the restaurant chain has deployed at hundreds of drive-thru locations around the country since 2023.

Taco Bell has deployed the Omilia voice AI capabilities at over 890 restaurants across 38 states to date, according to the announcement.

TACO BELL SHOWS OFF AI ‘COACH’ FOLLOWING MASSIVE DIGITAL TECH INVESTMENT

“Omilia’s Voice AI gives us the ability to ease team members’ workloads and provides them the flexibility to engage with customers in more meaningful ways,” said Dane Mathews, global chief digital and technology at Taco Bell. 

“Omilia’s platform has proven itself at scale in select U.S. restaurants, and continuing this strategic partnership supports our long-term digital and tech strategy,” Mathews added.

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The Omilia platform helps automate the ordering process when a customer pulls up to a drive-thru speaker and is capable of adapting to an individual location’s menu, real-time stocking levels, as well as limited-time offers that are available, which can make the ordering process more consistent and efficient for customers.

Dimitris Vassos, CEO and co-founder of Omilia, said that the “drive-thru environment is one of the most demanding – real-time, noisy, fast-paced, with menus that change by store and by day.”

The company said that general-purpose speech recognition platforms tend to struggle with various challenges fast food drive-thrus pose, ranging from road noise and regional accents, to potentially complicated order modifications and the fast pace of drive-thru service. 

THE STORY OF TACO BELL: HOW FORMER MARINE CREATED FAST-FOOD CHAIN WITH MEXICAN-INSPIRED MENU

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
YUM	YUM! BRANDS INC.	165.25	-2.24	-1.34%

Omilia’s features, including noise filtering and real-time menu adaptation, were designed to address those challenges, according to the company.

The announcement said that Taco Bell’s data found the transaction time in the drive-thru using voice AI is on par with, and in some cases faster than, traditional ordering methods.

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Additionally, Taco Bell locations using voice AI reported higher employee retention compared with those where it hasn’t been deployed, which the company said will help improve the guest experience.