India Searches CoinDCX and Delta Over Offshore Crypto Trades

CoinDCX probe targets USDT routes abroad

The four-page ED release reproduced by InvestIn.News identifies Neblio Technologies Private Limited, which operates CoinDCX, and Excelium Technologies Private Limited, which operates Delta Exchange India. Daily Crypto Briefs reviewed those reproduced pages; the agency’s original X post could not be retrieved directly.

The agency alleges that CoinDCX converted customers’ rupee deposits into USDT, then routed funds to Binance, KuCoin and Gate.io to execute spot orders. It says the foreign accounts were held in the name of a Costa Rica-based entity it characterized as a paper entity, with CoinDCX initiating transactions through software connections.

For futures and options, investigators describe corresponding positions opened overseas when customers entered trades in India. Closing the domestic position allegedly triggered the closing and settlement of its foreign counterpart. The ED says that arrangement bypassed the prescribed cross-border payment framework.

The release also alleges CoinDCX paid hundreds of crores of rupees in transaction fees to foreign platforms using stablecoins. These are the agency’s preliminary findings. The reviewed material contains no final adjudication establishing that either company violated the law.

The new inquiry follows a separate episode involving CoinDCX’s legacy-wallet losses. The November release does not establish a connection between that wallet incident and the transactions now being examined. Conflating them would obscure the different operational and regulatory questions.

Delta denies transfers as both exchanges keep services open

CoinDCX said it cooperated with officials visiting its Bengaluru office and complies with Indian law, including FEMA, according to The Crypto Times’ account of the companies’ responses. It cited its Financial Intelligence Unit-India registration and its customer-identification, anti-money-laundering and reporting obligations.

Delta said it cooperated and denied conducting cross-border virtual digital asset transfers. It described its platform as an INR-settled exchange serving Indian users, said customer funds were held in Indian banks and cited FIU-IND registration since 2023. Both companies said trading, deposits and withdrawals were functioning normally.

Those statements address customer access and the firms’ position on compliance. They do not independently verify every account’s condition or settle the agency’s allegations. The companies’ direct X posts were unavailable to this review, so their responses are attributed to the publication that reproduced and summarized them.

The ED’s description of Delta differs from the company’s account. Investigators allege a large volume of Delta’s derivatives and tokenized-stock activity was routed through CoinDCX, and say transfers of hundreds of crores to foreign associate entities remain under investigation.

The three searched locations are premises, not an affected-customer count. The release does not provide a customer tally, a transaction-by-transaction ledger or a consolidated exact amount. Its multiple references to thousands of crores should not be added together because the categories may overlap.

Tokenized stock scrutiny turns on settlement and ownership

The agency also alleges that products referencing Apple, Google and Tesla were derivative positions executed on Hyperliquid, rather than purchases of the underlying shares. CoinDCX’s own global stock token futures page markets futures exposure to foreign stocks, making the contractual structure central to understanding what customers bought.

A derivative tracks an asset’s price under a contract. It does not by itself establish ownership of the referenced company’s shares. That distinction also runs through the broader growth of tokenized stock markets, where products with similar labels can confer different rights.

Moneycontrol’s report on the searches describes the ED’s concern about foreign trading venues and stablecoin-funded settlement. The regulatory question extends beyond whether an Indian customer deposits and withdraws rupees: investigators are examining where the intervening funds, positions and fees go.

The release says investigators are also examining apparent inconsistencies with India’s securities and central-bank statutes. It announces no arrests, seizures or customer-loss total. Transaction volume is therefore an indicator of the alleged activity’s scale, not an amount customers have lost or authorities have recovered.

Broader crypto sentiment remained subdued: Alternative.me’s Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index stood at 28, or Fear, on November 8, compared with 25 the previous day. The measure is market context, rather than evidence about either exchange’s solvency or compliance.

The next substantive developments would be a further agency notice, transaction evidence, formal proceedings or changes to customer services. The reviewed release gives no deadline for the investigation’s completion, and neither a final liability finding nor an independently verified account-level impact was available as of November 8 at 20:35 UTC.