Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal built India’s largest crypto exchange. On March 21, Thane Police arrested them over a fraud that, according to CoinDCX, had nothing to do with them.
A 42-year-old insurance consultant filed a complaint on March 16 at Mumbra police station. He alleged losing over ₹71.6 lakh. The fraud ran through a fake site, “coindcx.pro,” built and operated by impersonators who had no connection to the real platform. Not one rupee moved through CoinDCX’s systems. The complainant told the court he had never met the founders. He did not know them.
The Thane court granted bail on March 24. Prima facie, no case was made out. Still, the arrest happened.
When Scammers Use Your Face, You Get Arrested
As Sumit Gupta wrote on X (@smtgpt), the ordeal exposed something that goes far beyond CoinDCX. He said the situation set a dangerous precedent: if a scammer puts a founder’s name, brand, and face on a fake website and defrauds someone, the founder gets arrested. Not the scammer. The founder.
That framing hit hard. And it drove everything that followed.
As also reported by Crypto News Live, the case collapsed on its own facts in court. But what it exposed about India’s fraud response infrastructure was harder to ignore.
India filed 28.15 lakh cybercrime complaints in 2025. That is a 24% jump over the year before. Total financial losses reached ₹22,495 crore. Of those 28 lakh complaints, only 55,484 became FIRs, a conversion rate under 2%. Investment scams alone account for 76% of all financial cybercrime losses in the country.
Must Read: India’s CBI Cracks Open a Global Cyber Slavery Ring
The ₹100 Crore Response India Did Not See Coming
Nine days after the arrest, CoinDCX announced the Digital Suraksha Network. A 100 crore rupees commitment. Gupta, on X, said the company would not respond with words alone.
The DSN has four pillars. First is a 24/7 WhatsApp helpline, free to all Indians, not only CoinDCX users. Anyone can verify links, platforms, or offers before sending money.
Second is an Open Fraud Intelligence API. CoinDCX documented over 1,200 fraudulent sites impersonating its platform across just 21 months. That data sat internal. Now it goes public. Every crypto exchange, bank, fintech, and digital lender is invited to contribute to a shared real-time fraud database.
Law enforcement infrastructure is third. Most police stations in India lack the tools to investigate digital fraud at the pace it moves. The DSN will fund blockchain forensics training for state cybercrime cells and technology grants for Cyber Crime Coordination Centres.
The fourth pillar asks regulators directly. SEBI, FIU-IND, and the Ministry of Finance. CoinDCX is calling for shared cyber safety standards built with the industry. The network will commission independent research and publish quarterly State of Digital Trust reports.
The Scale Behind the Decision
India’s UPI processed 21.7 billion transactions worth ₹28.33 lakh crore in January 2026 alone. Every transaction is a potential attack surface.
Nearly half of Indian adults have either experienced or know someone who fell victim to an AI voice-cloning or deepfake scam. Close to double the global average. 83 percent of those victims suffered direct monetary loss.
CoinDCX has worked with the Enforcement Directorate on seized digital asset custody. It co-launched a Cyber Surakshit Goem campaign with Goa Police. It has supported training at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy. The DSN builds directly on that track record.
Also Read: BTC Bottom Is Closer Than Anyone Will Admit
Gupta, as he stated on X (@smtgpt), is asking every platform, every regulator, and every Indian in digital finance to join. He put ₹100 crore behind the argument that someone has to start fixing this from the root. CoinDCX says that someone is them.
This is not a crypto problem. Any company with a digital footprint faces the same exposure. The founders said it plainly: anyone building startups in India should be able to do so with confidence, not fear.
This article was created by News Coverage Agency, the best PR agency helping all firms in getting access to media.