Buy U.S. Property With Crypto From India

The U.S. side is the easy part. Here’s the whole map — both sides.

We’ll say the uncomfortable part first: India has real capital controls, crypto sits inside them, and anyone marketing crypto as a way around the Liberalised Remittance Scheme is marketing you a FEMA violation. There is still a real, compliant path for Indian residents to own U.S. property — it just runs through the rules, not around them.

The path

  • Verify your wallet and get U.S.-grade proof of funds — from anywhere
  • Find the property: any U.S. listing, plus RealOpen inventory
  • Comply with India’s exit rules — your side, with your advisors
  • RealOpen converts crypto to USD and wires escrow; you close as a cash buyer, in your own name or trust

The U.S. Side: Simpler Than You Think

The United States has no citizenship or residency requirement for owning real estate, and the crypto-funded version of the purchase doesn’t add one. With RealOpen, Indian buyers close as cash buyers:

  • No U.S. bank account, no U.S. credit history, no LLC required — most international buyers close in their own name or a trust
  • Cryptographic wallet verification and institutional-grade proof of funds that U.S. agents and sellers accept
  • Your crypto converts to USD through institutional trading infrastructure at a locked rate; escrow receives a conventional wire
  • The seller, title company, and escrow company handle a standard cash closing — no one on the U.S. side needs to touch or understand crypto

The general international playbook lives at buying U.S. real estate from abroad; the full transaction mechanics are in how buying real estate with crypto works.

The Indian Side: LRS, the 30% Tax, and FEMA’s Hard Lines

The framework, without varnish:

  • The Liberalised Remittance Scheme allows each resident individual USD 250,000 per financial year for permitted purposes — and buying property abroad is explicitly permitted. Families routinely pool limits as co-owners
  • Crypto gains are taxed at a flat 30% (plus surcharge and cess) with 1% TDS on transfers and no loss offsets — the disposal that funds a purchase is fully inside this regime
  • FEMA is the hard boundary: remitting under LRS to buy crypto abroad is restricted, and structuring around LRS — including with crypto — invites penalties up to three times the amount involved. We will not help design that, and you should walk away from anyone who will

What that leaves is genuine: LRS-remitted funds buying U.S. property the standard way; NRIs and residents with lawfully offshore assets using those; and crypto-native wealth that is already compliantly outside India funding a RealOpen purchase like any international buyer. Which lane you’re in is a question for a FEMA-literate chartered accountant — before anything moves.

Start From Where You Are

The sequence that works: get your U.S.-side proof of funds first (it’s free to create an account and verify funds), line up your home-country compliance in parallel with your own advisors, then shop with the confidence of a cash buyer. Contact us with your situation — asset, country, target market — and we’ll tell you honestly what we can and can’t do for it.

This page is education, not legal, tax, or exchange-control advice. Home-country rules change — several cited here are in active transition — and professional advice in India is part of doing this right.

Frequently asked questions