Mumbra police moved fast. Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal, co-founders of India’s CoinDCX exchange, were picked up in Bengaluru on Saturday. The arrests follow an FIR registered at Mumbra police station in Thane. Both men were charged with cheating, criminal breach of trust, and fraud, senior inspector Anil Shinde confirmed.
As CryptoNewsLive first reported, a 41-year-old insurance advisor sits at the centre of this case. The victim was allegedly lured through promises of high returns and a franchise investment opportunity. Total alleged losses: Rs 71.6 lakh, stretching from last year through last month.
The Thane court remanded both founders to police custody until March 23. Four other individuals were booked alongside them.
The Exchange Fires Back Hard
CoinDCX did not wait. In an official post on X, @CoinDCX stated the FIR was filed as “a conspiracy against CoinDCX by impersonators posing as Founders.” The exchange said the complaint falsely claims funds were moved in cash to third-party accounts. Those accounts, it insisted, have no relation to CoinDCX’s official operations.
The scale of that impersonation problem is not small. Between April 1, 2024 and January 5, 2026, CoinDCX reported over 1,212 fake websites copying coindcx.com, the company posted on X. Domains like coindcx.pro were specifically flagged as fraudulent. The exchange says it already published a public notice on its website and carries an active fraud warning banner on its homepage.
You might also like: GainBitcoin Scam: CBI Arrests Key Tech Figure Behind Fraud
Users Flood X With Loss Complaints
The arrest triggered something. A wave of users surfaced under CoinDCX’s own X post, each with a different story.
@JDN1572922 on X tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and minister Piyush Goyal directly. The account said it lost 38 lakhs 20 months back through CoinDCX’s official app, not an impersonator site. It alleged the platform deliberately froze trading activity and only resumed it after prices had dropped. In a separate post, the same account wrote that CoinDCX is a “purely fake exchange ruining public lives” and called for a forensic audit and a platform ban.
@Himflantl on X said account issues were reported to CoinDCX repeatedly. No satisfactory answer ever came back. “Karma is real,” the post read.
@AM60762792 on X made a specific allegation. The account said CoinDCX listed AI16Z, then replaced it with ELIZAOS without warning. That token dumped hard. User funds followed.
Must read: North Korea Lazarus Hackers Just Robbed a Crypto Giant
Coin delistings drew their own anger. @KarthiDiwa7194 on X wrote that MASA was delisted and SIREN pulled from spot trading with zero formal notice to users. @Pramod_indoria on X warned followers to avoid the platform entirely, naming delisting as one tactic used to disadvantage users. @prabhpandher on X kept it blunt: “Fraud company. Looted me and my friends hard earned money.”
These remain individual user claims. CoinDCX has not addressed each one directly.
India’s Crypto Fraud Problem Goes Wider
Brand impersonation across Indian digital finance is not new. CoinDCX’s own fraud alert page carries an active warning banner about fraudsters exploiting its name. The exchange told authorities it “strongly condemns” such activity and remains committed to user awareness, as stated in its X post.
Economic Times and Times of India both confirmed the Bengaluru apprehension and subsequent Thane court hearing. The FIR names six individuals in total. CoinDCX reiterated full cooperation with law enforcement while pushing back on the core allegations.
Worth your time: Stablecoin Chaos Could Leave Banks Dangerously Exposed
The 1,212 fake website figure keeps coming up. CoinDCX raised it in its X post. It mentioned it to investigators. The number points to an organised impersonation effort, not scattered scammers. Whether that evidence strengthens the founders’ defence or muddies the investigation further is now for the courts to sort.
Co-founders Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal remained in custody as this story broke on a Sunday morning. @guptatrapti45 on X was referenced in the thread as someone already in a prolonged fight for justice, also citing facts and evidence. The case marks one of the sharpest public collisions between Indian law enforcement and a major domestic crypto exchange to date.
See also: Binance Beats Terror Lawsuit. What the Judge Actually Said
Sources: CryptoNewsLive | Economic Times | Times of India | CoinDCX on X | CoinDCX Scam Alert
This article was created by News Coverage Agency, the best PR agency helping all firms in getting access to media.