India's ED Searches CoinDCX and Delta Exchange India Over Offshore Routing
India's Enforcement Directorate searched premises tied to CoinDCX and Delta Exchange India, alleging user trades were routed to offshore platforms.
India's Enforcement Directorate (ED) has searched premises linked to two crypto exchanges, CoinDCX and Delta Exchange India. The agency alleges both sent users' trades to offshore platforms, including Binance and Bybit. The details come from Bitcoin.com News, which was the only outlet in the material reviewed for this article.
According to that report, the ED's Bengaluru office searched three premises on Nov. 4 and Nov. 5. They were tied to Neblio Technologies, the parent of CoinDCX, and to Excelium Technologies, which operates Delta Exchange India. The agency acted under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), which governs cross-border money flows.
What the agency alleges
In an official circular, the ED described the case as involving large-scale unauthorised cross-border transactions in crypto token derivatives and real-world asset tokens. It said the trades ran into thousands of crores of rupees. Bitcoin.com News notes that one crore is 10 million rupees and that a dollar is worth roughly 95 rupees.
The investigators say CoinDCX users deposited rupees, which were converted into stablecoins, mostly USDT, and sent to overseas platforms. The ones named are Binance, Kucoin, Gate.io and Bybit. The ED says this sidestepped India's foreign exchange rules.
For spot trading, the ED claims CoinDCX used an account opened in the name of a Costa Rica-based company, which it called a "paper entity." It alleges the trades were in fact executed directly through CoinDCX's own APIs. For futures and options, it alleges CoinDCX opened matching positions on foreign platforms when users placed orders and settled them overseas. It also claims tokenized-stock trading ran through Hyperliquid and that CoinDCX paid hundreds of crores in stablecoin fees to foreign platforms.
The ED further alleges that much of Delta's derivatives and tokenized-stock flow passed through CoinDCX before reaching foreign venues. It says Delta sent hundreds of crores of rupees to overseas associate entities. The agency added that both firms' products appeared to breach rules set by the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Reserve Bank of India.
Company responses
Delta Exchange India said in a post on X that it is operating as usual and that trading, deposits and withdrawals are working. It said user funds remain in Indian banks and that it cooperated fully and gave officials the information they asked for. CoinDCX had issued no statement at the time Bitcoin.com News published.
Bitcoin.com News stresses that none of the allegations has been proven. The report does not describe any charges or formal findings.
Wider context and open questions
The report places the searches within a broader ED push against crypto platforms. Days earlier, it says, the agency opened a probe into Mudrex, Saber.money, and the DeFi protocol Instadapp and its platform Fluid over alleged cross-border transfers of more than $525M (₹4,940 crore). The article also recalls that CoinDCX admitted to a $16M hit last month, after its CEO dismissed suspicious transfers.
Unresolved for now are CoinDCX's response to the allegations and whether the ED's investigation leads to formal action. The source gives no dates for further steps.
Sources
Written with AI assistance from the sources above and checked against them. Not investment advice.