CoinDCX Points Finger at Copycat Scammers, Not Its Founders, in Latest Indian Crypto Fiasco

Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX has publicly torched a police FIR that somehow managed to list its co-founders, Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal, as suspects in an investment scam. The company insists the case is a textbook case of fraudster cosplay, with scammers pretending to be CoinDCX reps to fleece investors who apparently didn't check the name tag.

In a post on X that dripped with exasperation, CoinDCX labeled the FIR "false" and a "conspiracy" by impersonators wielding the brand's name and doctored documents. The exchange issued a warning that its platform is being impersonated yet again, and any claims of funds being funneled to random third-party wallets are pure fiction.

The scam came to light after an insurance consultant from Mumbra took the bait on promises of a juicy 10-12% return. Between August 2025 and March, he watched $76,000 (₹71.6 lakh) vanish into the digital ether, including $28,000 (₹26.6 lakh) of his own capital, while two associates lost $26,000 (₹25 lakh) and $21,000 (₹20 lakh) respectively. The subsequent FIR filed in Thane, in a move of peak procedural comedy, included the CoinDCX founders on the suspect list.

CA Sonu Jain of 9Point Capital dryly noted this is "a classic case of impersonation fraud" and pointed out that such schemes are becoming a popular pastime in the Indian crypto scene. He clarified that questioning founders is just bureaucracy in motion, not a verdict, and lamented that India's regulatory vacuum and lack of investor protections have become a five-star resort for scammers.

Jain pushed for regulators to finally outline who's responsible for what, to speed up the takedown of fraudulent sites, and to improve the coordination between agencies like FIU-India, I4C, CERT-In, and the actual exchanges. CoinDCX seconded the motion, revealing it has logged over 1,212 fake websites impersonating its platform between 1 April 2024 and 5 January 2026, and is now playing whack-a-mole with law enforcement while trying to teach users the basics of not clicking on every shiny link.

The exchange also, perhaps with a sigh, reminded everyone of its own recent excitement: a $44.2 million treasury breach disclosed last July, following the arrest of a Bengaluru software engineer accused of facilitating the hack that drained an internal account via compromised credentials.

Amidst all this chaos, India's infamous crypto tax regime remains untouched, like a monument to investor pain. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman left the 30% tax and 1% TDS firmly in place in her ninth consecutive Union Budget, a policy born in February 2022 that continues to be the number one mood-killer for local crypto enthusiasts.

Industry commentators, like Hashtag Web3 founder Vedang Vatsa, suggest this whole episode should serve as a not-so-gentle reminder for everyone to level up their financial literacy, do their own research, and maybe, just maybe, ask for some actual regulatory oversight that doesn't move at the speed of a dial-up connection.