India's Enforcement Directorate Raids CoinDCX and Delta Exchange Over Alleged Offshore Crypto Trades

Published November 7, 2026, 1:45 PM PKT. Based on the Enforcement Directorate's press release of November 6, 2026 (primary source), as reported by Exchange4Media, PANews and Coinpedia (secondary reporting).

India's Enforcement Directorate searched three premises in Bengaluru linked to crypto exchanges CoinDCX and Delta Exchange India on November 4 and 5, 2026, alleging the two platforms routed Indian customer funds offshore through stablecoins to trade on foreign exchanges without authorization. The agency's Bengaluru Zonal Office carried out the searches under Section 37 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999, and said the volumes involved run into thousands of crores of rupees in each product line it examined. One crore equals 10 million rupees, so the figures the agency cited run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. No charges have been filed, and the agency said further investigation is under progress.

The raids: three premises, two exchanges

The searches targeted the two companies behind the platforms, Neblio Technologies Private Limited, which operates CoinDCX, and Excelium Technologies Private Limited, which operates Delta Exchange India, according to the agency's press release. The Enforcement Directorate said the investigation began with information received and material available against the two companies, and that it covers alleged unauthorised cross-border transactions in crypto derivatives and real-world asset tokens. Both platforms offered customers spot trading, futures and options in crypto tokens, and trading in tokenised stocks of foreign companies, and the agency said they openly advertised the tokenised stock products despite allegedly not being authorised to offer them.

CoinDCX says it has more than 20 million users across India and the United Arab Emirates, and it counts Coinbase among its investors, which makes the searches the most significant Indian enforcement action against a domestic crypto exchange this year. Delta Exchange India is smaller, but the agency's account puts it at the centre of the same alleged routing scheme, with a large share of its derivative trading passing through CoinDCX before reaching foreign platforms.

The double-hop: rupees to USDT to foreign exchanges

The agency described the spot-trading mechanism as a double-hop. A customer deposits Indian rupees on CoinDCX and places an order for a crypto token, the release said. The rupees are converted into Tether ($USDT), the dollar-pegged stablecoin, and the USDT is sent to Binance, KuCoin or Gate.io, where the customer's order is executed. The transfers go through an account on those exchanges held in the name of a Costa Rica-based entity, which the Enforcement Directorate described as a paper entity used to get around the framework for cross-border money transfers. The trades are executed directly from CoinDCX through application programming interfaces, the agency said, indicating an operational connection between the Indian platform and the overseas exchanges.

The agency said the volume of such cross-border spot trading runs into thousands of crores of rupees. It also said CoinDCX holds enterprise trading accounts on foreign crypto platforms, keeping crypto assets abroad in contravention of FEMA, and that the platform pays hundreds of crores of rupees in transaction fees to foreign exchanges, routed in USDT rather than through the channels FEMA allows, and booked as business expenses.

Futures, options and tokenised stocks

The same pattern, the agency alleged, applied to derivatives. A customer deposits rupees and opens a futures or options position on CoinDCX, and the platform opens a matching one-to-one position on Binance, KuCoin, Bybit or Gate.io through the account held in the Costa Rica entity's name, the release said. When the customer closes the position, the foreign position is also closed, and settlement takes place on the foreign platform. The agency said the volume of these cross-border futures and options transactions also runs into thousands of crores of rupees, and that the arrangement effectively gave Indian customers exposure to derivatives traded on overseas exchanges through the Indian platform.

The tokenised stock offering worked the same way, according to the agency. CoinDCX offered trading in tokenised stocks of foreign companies such as Apple, Google and Tesla, but the agency said what customers were offered as tokenised stocks was in reality derivative trading on Hyperliquid, a foreign decentralised trading platform, and that the user did not own the underlying stock. A customer deposits rupees and places an order for a global futures stock product, the release said, and CoinDCX converts the funds into USDT and opens a matching position on Hyperliquid, closing it when the customer closes. The agency said the volume of cross-border transactions involving tokenised stocks also runs into thousands of crores of rupees.

Delta Exchange and the CoinDCX link

Delta Exchange India, run by Excelium Technologies, offers the same menu of spot, futures and options trading in crypto tokens and trading in tokenised foreign stocks, the agency said. Searches at two of the group's premises found, according to the agency, that a large share of Delta Exchange India's derivative trading, including futures, options and tokenised stocks, was routed through CoinDCX, which in turn placed the trades on Binance, KuCoin, Gate.io, Bybit and other foreign platforms. The agency said the volume of those transactions runs into several thousand crores of rupees, and that hundreds of crores of rupees were transferred by Delta Exchange India to associate entities abroad, transfers that are now under investigation.

The agency also raised a second front. It said the products offered by both platforms appear, prima facie, to be contrary to the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, the SEBI Act, 1992, and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, and that those aspects are being examined further. That framing matters because it puts the case beyond a foreign-exchange question and into the territory of India's securities and banking regulators, although no action by the Securities and Exchange Board of India or the Reserve Bank of India has been announced.

CoinDCX calls it a routine inquiry

CoinDCX pushed back on the framing within a day. In a post published on November 7, the company said officials from the Enforcement Directorate visited its Bengaluru office on November 4 for a routine inquiry, that it fully cooperated and provided all necessary information and assistance, and that it is registered with India's Financial Intelligence Unit, complies with FEMA, and fulfils its customer identification, anti-money laundering and reporting obligations. Trading, deposits and withdrawals are all operating normally, the company said. No response from Delta Exchange India was available at the time of publication.

The contrast between the two accounts is the story for now. The agency describes searches under Section 37 of FEMA, a multi-layered routing mechanism through a Costa Rica entity, and volumes in the thousands of crores of rupees across three product lines. CoinDCX describes a routine visit, full cooperation, and business as usual. Both sides agree on the basic facts of the visit itself, but they disagree on what it means, and the agency has said only that its findings are allegations at the search stage, with no charges filed.

This is a separate matter from the CoinDCX dispute MABOnChain covered in October, when about $16 million in Tether ($USDT) moved from old compromised wallets and the exchange later admitted operational losses after a sweep of those wallets failed. That episode concerned internal wallet controls. The Enforcement Directorate case concerns how customer trades were executed and settled, and whether Indian money reached foreign exchanges outside the framework FEMA sets for cross-border transfers.

What comes next

Four things will decide how far this goes. The first is whether the Enforcement Directorate moves from searches to formal proceedings under FEMA, which can carry penalties, or to asset attachments, neither of which has happened yet. The second is whether the agency names the Costa Rica entity, quantifies the volumes precisely, or publishes the advertisements and account records its press release referred to. The third is whether the Securities and Exchange Board of India or the Reserve Bank of India opens its own examination of the products the agency flagged under the securities and banking laws. The fourth is the companies' next move: CoinDCX has said it complies with FEMA and will keep cooperating, while Delta Exchange India has not yet responded publicly. Until one of those steps lands, the case stands as an investigation with detailed allegations and no charges, and the two exchanges keep operating.

Sources

• Enforcement Directorate, Bengaluru Zonal Office, press release, November 6, 2026 (primary source: searches at three Bengaluru premises on November 4 and 5 under Section 37 of FEMA, 1999; Neblio Technologies Private Limited operates CoinDCX and Excelium Technologies Private Limited operates Delta Exchange India; double-hop spot mechanism through Tether ($USDT) and a Costa Rica-based paper entity to Binance, KuCoin and Gate.io; one-to-one mirrored futures and options positions on Binance, KuCoin, Bybit and Gate.io; tokenised Apple, Google and Tesla stocks executed as derivatives on Hyperliquid; enterprise accounts abroad and hundreds of crores of rupees in fees paid in USDT; Delta Exchange India derivatives routed through CoinDCX; hundreds of crores of rupees transferred to associate entities abroad; products prima facie contrary to the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, the SEBI Act, 1992, and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934; no charges filed, further investigation under progress; full text carried by Ministry of Cyber Affairs)
• Exchange4Media, ED raids CoinDCX, Delta Exchange over alleged FEMA violations, November 7, 2026 (secondary reporting: three Bengaluru premises searched November 4 and 5; volumes running into thousands of crores of rupees in each product line; Costa Rica paper entity; tokenised stocks of Apple, Google and Tesla through Hyperliquid)
• PANews, India's Enforcement Directorate Searches Premises Linked to CoinDCX, Delta, Alleging Unauthorized Cross-Border Transactions, November 7, 2026 (secondary reporting: searches under FEMA 1999; cross-border transactions amounting to hundreds of billions of rupees)
• PANews, CoinDCX: Cooperated With India's Enforcement Directorate Inquiry; Trading, Deposits and Withdrawals Operating Normally, November 7, 2026 (secondary reporting: CoinDCX post saying the Enforcement Directorate visited its Bengaluru office on November 4 for a routine inquiry; full cooperation; Financial Intelligence Unit registration; FEMA compliance; trading, deposits and withdrawals operating normally)
• Coinpedia via TradingView, India Probes CoinDCX, Delta Exchange Over Alleged Offshore Crypto Trading Worth Thousands Of Crores, November 6, 2026 (secondary reporting: searches at three premises under Section 37 of FEMA; allegations not proven; investigation ongoing)
• MABOnChain reporting, October 2026 (context: the separate CoinDCX dispute over about $16 million in Tether ($USDT) moving from old compromised wallets, covered in CoinDCX Denies New Hack as $16M in USDT Moves From Old Compromised Wallets and CoinDCX Admits Operational Losses After Sweep of Old Compromised Wallets Failed)

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.