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India's financial crimes agency searches CoinDCX and Delta Exchange, alleging offshore trades routed through a Costa Rican shell
Summary
India's Enforcement Directorate searched three Bengaluru premises linked to crypto exchanges CoinDCX and Delta Exchange on Nov. 4 and 5 under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, according to Decrypt and CoinDesk; the agency shared its Nov. 6 statement on X on Thursday.
The agency alleges CoinDCX converted users' rupee deposits into USDT and placed matching trades on Binance, KuCoin, Bybit and Gate.io through accounts held by a Costa Rica-based group entity it called a shell, Decrypt reported.
It also alleged that tokenized trades in shares such as Apple, Google and Tesla were really derivatives positions opened on Hyperliquid, and that the cross-border flows in each area ran to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Both exchanges said they cooperated fully, deny wrongdoing and that trading, deposits and withdrawals remain normal; the agency said its investigation is ongoing.
Key facts
- Decrypt: the probe targets Neblio Technologies, which operates CoinDCX, and Excelium Technologies, which runs Delta Exchange.
- Decrypt: the agency said CoinDCX paid tens of millions of dollars in fees to foreign exchanges in USDT, and that Delta Exchange transferred tens of millions of dollars to overseas group entities.
- CoinDCX called the Nov. 4 visit 'a routine enquiry' and said it operates 'in strict compliance with all applicable Indian laws, including FEMA.'
- Delta Exchange said its business 'does not involve any cross-border transfer of VDAs in any form or manner' and that it runs a rupee-settled exchange for Indian users only.
- CoinDesk: the Enforcement Directorate alleged illegal cross-border flows that violated India's foreign exchange laws.
- Decrypt: last month CoinDCX confirmed a $16 million loss from retired wallets, after a roughly $44 million exploit in July 2025.