The Enforcement Directorate searched three Bengaluru sites linked to CoinDCX and Delta Exchange India, accusing them of routing rupee deposits through offshore platforms like Binance and Bybit.
India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids on three Bengaluru premises linked to cryptocurrency exchanges CoinDCX and Delta Exchange India on Nov. 4‑5, alleging the platforms facilitated large‑scale unauthorised cross‑border transactions in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
According to the ED, Indian users deposited rupees with CoinDCX, which were converted into the stablecoin USDT and then transferred to offshore exchanges including Binance, Kucoin, Gate.io and Bybit. The agency describes the transfers as a method to sidestep India’s foreign‑exchange controls, involving “thousands of crores of rupees.”
The investigation points to a Costa‑Rica‑registered company, characterised by the ED as a “paper entity,” that allegedly held an account used to move USDT abroad. The directorate further claims that CoinDCX’s futures, options and tokenised‑stock products opened matching positions on foreign platforms via application programming interfaces (APIs), with settlement occurring overseas.
Delta Exchange India issued a statement on X saying it is cooperating fully with officials, that trading, deposits and withdrawals remain uninterrupted, and that user funds are secured in Indian banks. CoinDCX has not issued a comment as of press time. The raids come amid a wider ED crackdown that has previously targeted platforms such as Mudrex, Saber.money and the DeFi protocol Instadapp, and earlier this year saw searches of entities including Transak and Carret.
Key developments to monitor include whether the ED moves to freeze assets or summon senior executives, and if the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) initiates a separate case over the alleged derivatives and tokenised‑stock violations.
Discussion 0