CoinDCX Denies Rumours Of An Acquisition With Coinbase

The CEO of Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX has publicly denied rumors that he is negotiating with Coinbase to sell the company for $1 billion, a steep decline from its peak valuation of $2.2 billion in 2021.

Last week, Indian news outlet Mint published an article reporting on how Coinbase was in "advanced discussions" to acquire CoinDCX, citing two anonymous sources who have revealed the matter.

"Buying CoinDCX at this discounted valuation is essentially a low-cost gamble-positioning itself for potential upside if India's crypto market eventually matures."

But CEO Sumit Gupta has denied these rumours, calling the report rumours.

"CoinDCX is super focused on building for India's crypto story and not up for sale. Will share more later but just wanted to clarify this upfront."

Prior to Gupta’s comments, a Coinbase spokesperson declined to address “rumors or speculation,” emphasizing instead the company’s global mission to increase economic freedom and its ongoing exploration of global partnerships, acquisitions, and investments.

Deal Comes A Week After A Major Security Break At CoinDCX

The reports about the acquisition of CoinDCX came just one week after the exchange suffered a hack, where the attacks breached an operational wallet and drained $44.2 million from the exchange within minutes.

In a statement, Ceo Gupta explained how the hackers had compromised on of CoinDCX's internal account used for "liquidity provisions" with another exchange through a server breach.

But he assured that the customer funds, which remained in cold storage, were not affected.

Cybersercurity experts reported that the incident is linked to the infamous North Korean Lazarus Group and follows the same exploit pattern as WazirX hack last year, resulting in a loss of $234 million.

In response, CoinDCX launched a recovery bounty program, offering up to 25% of any retrieved funds to white hat hackers who aid in tracing and recovering stolen assets.

Coinbase Expands Into India Through An Acquisitions Spree

Coinbase’s interest in India remains notable. Earlier this year, the U.S.-based exchange registered with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit, signaling intentions to expand its local footprint as India’s crypto adoption accelerates.

The company briefly launched operations in the country in 2022 before exiting due to regulatory challenges.

On the global front, Coinbase has been aggressively expanding its product suite and market reach.

In May, it finalized a $2.9 billion acquisition of crypto derivatives giant Deribit and, most recently, acquired Liquifi, a platform specializing in token management for early-stage Web3 projects.