National Stock Exchange (NSE) data confirmed that the investment platform Dhan officially crossed the 1 million (10 lakh) active users milestone in February 2026.
This achievement marks a significant rise for the Mumbai-based fintech, which recently attained unicorn status (a $1 billion valuation) in late 2025.
February 2026: Broking Industry Performance
The retail broking sector in India showed resilience despite global market volatility, adding a total of 3.5 lakh active users to reach a massive 4.54 crore industry-wide base.
| Broker | New Users (Feb ’26) | Total Active Users | Market Share |
| Groww | +2.65 Lakh | 1.27 Crore | 28.03% |
| Zerodha | +10,000 | 68.72 Lakh | 15.11% |
| Dhan | +19,000 | ~10.1 Lakh | 2.24% |
| Angel One | +10,000 | 77.5 Lakh* | ~16.1% |
| INDmoney | +6,000 | 0.85 Lakh | <1% |
| Upstox | (-27,000) | — | 4.42% |
Note: Zerodha showed signs of recovery in February after losing nearly 1.7 lakh users in the final quarter of 2025.
Factors Behind Dhan’s Fast Ascent
Dhan’s growth is particularly notable as it reached the 1 million mark in just four years since its public launch in late 2021.
- The “Made for Trade” Focus: Unlike platforms targeting casual SIP investors, Dhan has built its brand on advanced features for pro-traders, such as deep integration with TradingView, “Options Trader” dedicated apps, and lightning-fast execution APIs.
- Pricing Disruption: Its policy of zero brokerage for women investors across all segments has been a major driver of regional diversity and user acquisition.
- Product Velocity: In the last six months, Dhan launched over 20 new features, including “Strategy Builder 2.0” and automated tax-loss harvesting, which have improved user retention.
Market Dynamics: Digital vs. Traditional
The February data highlights a widening “valuation gap” in the sector:
- Digital Premium: Market leaders like Groww are trading at high multiples (P/E of ~53x), as investors favor their growth-tech models.
- Traditional Recovery: While digital-first apps dominate new additions, traditional firms like ICICI Securities (+30,000) and SBI Securities (+16,400) saw healthy growth in February as mature investors sought stability during the recent US-Israel-Iran war tensions.
- FII vs. DII: Despite Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) pulling out ₹6,640 crore in February due to rising US bond yields, the market remained stable as Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) and retail SIPs pumped in ₹38,423 crore.
Future Outlook
With the NSE IPO recently receiving SEBI’s nod (scheduled for later in 2026), emerging brokers like Dhan are expected to see even higher trading volumes as public interest in the exchange’s “equity” increases.
