An agreement can enhance Coindcx, one of the largest cryptography scholarships in India, less than a billion dollars, highly below its cutting-edge valuation of $ 2.2 billion three years ago, the people mentioned above declared anonymous. If it is finished, the acquisition will mark a deeper thrust of Coinbase in India, where it already has participations in Coindcx and Rival Coinwitch.
“Coinbase considers this as a long-term strategic bet,” said one of the two people mentioned above. “The purchase of Coindcx from this reduced price assessment is essentially a low cost bet – positioning yourself for upward potential if the cryptography market of India finally matures.”
Coinbase refused to comment specifically the acquisition talks. “We have a daring mission to increase economic freedom worldwide and continually explore opportunities around the world to build, buy, associate and invest in accelerating our roadmap,” said a spokesperson in response to a question.
A second option under study consists in combining the challenges of Coinbase in Coindcx and Coinswitch, the most precious crypto exchange in India. Although no official conference is underway, the person quoted above said that a merger of the two portfolio companies “is likely, but not yet on the table”.
Coinswitch said it was not in active talks of a merger with Coindcx. “We have no active conversations in this regard right now,” said co-founder Ashish Singhal. “We believe that the competition is good and that will finally benefit users.”
Coinbase, who registered with the financial intelligence unit of India in March this year, is preparing to deploy the retail crypto trade in the country. “India is today one of the most exciting market opportunities in the world,” said John O’Loghlen, Coinbase Director in Asia-Pacific in March. If the Coindcx agreement ends, it would mark the most important bet of the company on India.
Cryptographic flight
On July 19, Coindcx reported a crypto flight of $ 44 million after the hackers targeted an internal account used to provide liquidity to customers. No customer fund has been lost.
Although Blockchain detectives noted a suspicious activity shortly after the violation, Coindcx revealed the issue almost 5 p.m. later, unlike global companies like Binance and Bybit who disclosed such incidents instantly. According to the company’s own blog of the company’s incidents, the violation took place on July 19 and was publicly confirmed at 2:30 p.m. IST the next day.
On the delay in the reports, this blog of the company said: “We chose to be meticulous first, then transparent. Once we had a clear image and that we had taken all the necessary measures to secure the platform, we communicated the facts to our community.”
In response, Coindcx has launched a recovery bonus program, offering up to 25% – around $ 11 million – of all the funds recovered. The company stressed its intention to rebuild trust after the violation.
Crypto Exchange Wazirx, which was hacked last year, also announced a bonus of $ 23 million to recover stolen assets. But users still have to receive any of their assets, while legal proceedings come on.
A forensic analysis of Giuseppe Ciccomomascolo, a crypto and finance journalist based in London, published on CCN.com, said that the attackers had probably compromised backend servers or internal references, rather than exploiting the vulnerabilities in the blockchain. The stolen funds were then moved quickly through the blockchain networks and put the mixing services to hide their path, complicating recovery efforts.
“Hot portfolios remain disproportionately to allow liquidity 24/7, but it is precisely the assets that are affected,” said Ciccoascolo. A hot wallet is a cryptographic portfolio connected to the Internet, which makes it practical for frequent transactions, but also makes it more sensitive to online threats. The breach, wrote Ciccoascolo, was not only a technical lap but indicating “low segregation practices” and a wider absence of “the red continuous team” – a standard cybersecurity approach where simulated attacks are used to identify the weaknesses before the real.
Finances
Public deposits of Neblio Technologies, which operates Coindcx In India, show the reported benefits of ₹15.5 crores in fy24 and ₹28 Core during exercise 23; However, a significant part of its income – 60% in exercise 24 and 80% in financial year 23 – come from the services provided to its affiliated entities – Prometack PTE in Singapore and Global DCX in Mauritius. If these are excluded, Neblio would have recorded losses during the two years.
Coindcx declaration practices differ from global standards on the transparency of crypto exchanges. The main international players such as Coinbase, Kraken and Binance turned to regular disclosure of proof of reservations (POR), responsibilities for assessment of verifiers and open portfolio certificates. On the other hand, the POR COINDCX reports follow a format where the scope of the audit is defined by the company itself.
“There is no reason why the scope of a reserve audit should be controlled by the company’s verification,” said Jayjit Biswas, Fintech and Crypto expert. “As you do this, you eliminate any pretension of independence. And that’s exactly what is happening in most Indian exchanges.”
Coindcx refused to comment beyond his public blog articles. “We have already shared all the details of the incident as well as our financial health transparently through our blogs,” said a company spokesperson.
The disclosure of April 2025 from Coindcx said that around 28% of assets, or about $ 158 million, were held outside, classified as “partner funds” or hot portfolios. According to Biswas, this figure is well above the world’s best practices of the exhibition of less than 5% for portfolios connected to the Internet. “Such high use of the hot wallet would not pass any institutional risk test,” said Biswas.
Broader concerns
In July 2024, Wazirx – then the largest crypto exchange in the country – supported a massive hack of $ 235 million awarded to North Korean cybercriminals. The attack sparked surveys by the FIU, the certificate, the intelligence office and even a legal examination in Singapore. The surveys have discovered around $ 41 million in paid parties related to entities controlled by the founder, raising questions on internal controls and corporate governance, according to Reuters. The Directorate of the Application of the Act froze its assets and the exchange was faced with banking restrictions, paralyzing large parts of its operations.
These violations in these exchanges have triggered wider concerns concerning governance, transparency and safety practices of Indian cryptography platforms.
Pranesh Prakash, principal consultant at Anekaanta and a stock market affiliated to the project of the Yale Law School Information Company, argued that the heart of the problem lies in the absence of a clear regulation of consumer protection. “The transparency standards established by regulators such as SEBI and RBI are notably absent in the Indian cryptography sector,” said Prakash. “There is currently no framework focused specifically on investor security and disclosure standards.” Prakash suggested an approach more based on surveillance results.
Security analysts claim that the two incidents indicate the same fundamental problem: liquidity is managed with high -risk practices.
Prakash called for a complete philosophical reorientation of the regulation of cryptography. “Currently, regulators focus mainly on the fight against money laundering, knowledge of your client and the application of taxes,” he said. “But that is not enough. You need to protect investors at the heart-how it is made can vary: by insurance, minimum capital pads, third-party audits or strict wallet segregation. But unless you define the results, you will never correct the entries,” he said.
The co-founder of Coinswitch, Singhal, was among the most vocal on the structural handicaps faced by Indian cryptography companies. In a post of July 27, he argued that excessive taxes and regulatory uncertainty made almost impossible for Indian platforms to operate with the same rigor of safety and compliance as their global counterparts. “Most startups do not have the luxury of funding, high margins or scale, and this affects the capacity of the ecosystem to invest in security and develop,” wrote Singhal. “Security needs serious money. You need better talents, world class partners, and you have to stay paranoid every day.”
