In a small internet café in Srinagar, two friends discuss “the next big coin.” One of them shows an app on his phone, with graph rising in steep green lines.

“It’s going to explode soon,” he says with conviction.

This is a familiar scene in Kashmir these days. The youth, fluent in digital language and eager for opportunity, have found in cryptocurrency an alluring promise of fast wealth.

But, as with most speculative booms, the excitement often outpaces understanding.

The crypto fever sweeping Kashmir reflects a broader pattern of high-risk investing emerging across smaller Indian towns, where aspiration meets limited financial literacy.

The result is an ecosystem of misplaced trust, overconfidence, and, increasingly, loss.

In theory, cryptocurrency offers the thrill of autonomy: no

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