Federal investigators descended on India’s top crypto platforms this week. Enforcement Directorate officials searched three premises linked to CoinDCX and Delta Exchange in Bengaluru on November 4 and 5, targeting alleged unauthorized cross-border financial transactions running into thousands of crores of rupees under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.
Searches targeted Neblio Technologies Pvt. Ltd., the operator of CoinDCX, and Excelium Technologies Pvt. Ltd., which runs Delta Exchange India. According to the ED, both platforms offered spot trading, tokenized foreign equities, and crypto futures and options. The central question for investigators is straightforward: did these setups circumvent India's capital account controls to export domestic liquidity onto foreign bourses?
Cash entered the platforms as Indian rupees. Then the conversion began. Preliminary findings by the ED indicate that customer rupee deposits placed with CoinDCX were converted into the stablecoin USDT, before being moved overseas to international platforms including Binance, KuCoin, and Gate.io to settle trades.
A shell entity anchored the entire plumbing. The ED alleged that transactions were funneled through an account registered in the name of a Costa Rica-based paper company, executed via CoinDCX’s application programming interfaces. CoinDCX also mirrored client futures and options trades onto Binance, KuCoin, Bybit, and Gate.io—settling derivative positions directly on foreign order books while holding the client front-end in India.
Delta Exchange India used a similar pipeline. The agency stated that large volumes of futures and options trades along with tokenized foreign stock transactions offered by Delta were routed through CoinDCX onto overseas bourses. These offshore trades involved several thousand crores of rupees. Investigators are also tracing hundreds of crores in direct transfers from Delta Exchange India to its overseas associate entities.
The legal net extends far beyond exchange controls. The ED confirmed it is scrutinizing the platforms under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, the SEBI Act, 1992, and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
Both exchanges moved quickly to reassure markets. Delta Exchange India acknowledged the November 4 and 5 visits, stating that operations, deposits, and withdrawals continue without interruption and user funds remain parked securely in domestic banks. Excelium Technologies has been registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit-India since 2023, the firm noted, adding that its exchange settles strictly in rupees without cross-border transfers of virtual digital assets. CoinDCX confirmed the November 4 enquiry at its Bengaluru office, stating it operates in full compliance with FEMA, holds FIU-IND registration, and maintains full operations across its book as federal enquiries proceed.