Indian | Crypto

CoinDCX’s Sumit Gupta said crypto is becoming a natural extension of traditional investing as Indian traders mature. Indian crypto investors using CoinDCX appear to be taking a more deliberate, portfolio-based approach to digital asset investing, with early signs of longer-term allocation behavior emerging in 2025.  On Thursday, the exchange released its annual report, which suggested that users are gradually shifting away from a “crypto equals Bitcoin” mindset toward more diversified holdings. CoinDCX data showed that the average customer now holds about five tokens, a notable increase from two to three tokens per investor in 2022.  The report also noted that layer-1 assets accounted for 43.3% of portfolio volumes, while Bitcoin (BTC) held a significant share at 26.5%. Memecoins represented 11.8% of users’ portfolio allocations, according to the report.  Read more

Just a few weeks after a Singaporean court approved WazirX's parent company's restructuring plan, a decision out of one of India's courts could impact users. An Indian high court issued a ruling that could impact how cryptocurrency exchanges handle claims filed by users following a hack or other incident potentially affecting their holdings. In a ruling delivered on Saturday, Justice N. Ananad Venkatesh of India’s High Court of Judicature at Madras ordered crypto exchange WazirX’s operator, Zanmai Lab, to furnish a bank guarantee for about $11,800 as part of arbitration proceedings brought by a user over 3,532 XRP (XRP) holdings. Zanmai has custody of the tokens, which were frozen after a 2024 cyberattack resulted in the loss of about $235 million worth of crypto. “Since the cyber attack took place, there are insufficient crypto currency tokens attributable to the platform’s user liabilities to satisfy unsecured crypto currency claims of its users,” said the Saturday filing. Read more

A former BJP legislator and 11 police officials have been convicted for the 2018 abduction of a Surat businessman in a plot to seize over 750 Bitcoin. An Indian anti-corruption court has sentenced 14 individuals, including 11 police officials and a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), to life imprisonment in a case involving the kidnapping and extortion of crypto from a Surat-based businessman in 2018. The judgment, delivered by Special Judge B.B. Jadav in Ahmedabad on Friday, found the group guilty of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping for ransom, illegal detention, and assault, according to a report by The Times of India. Among those convicted are former Amreli district superintendent of police Jagdish Patel and ex-MLA Nalin Kotadiya. All 11 police officers, including former IPS officer Patel, were also found guilty under the Prevention of Corruption Act for misconduct by public servants. Read more

The cybersecurity exploit occurred due to a "sophisticated server breach," CoinDCX CEO and co-founder Sumit Gupta announced on Saturday. Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX was hacked on Friday, leaving the exchange drained of $44 million.  The hackers compromised one of CoinDCX’s internal accounts used for “liquidity provisions” with another exchange through a server breach. No user funds were affected due to the exploit, according to CoinDCX CEO Sumit Gupta. The CEO also said that all customer funds remain safe and wrote: Read more

Crypto proponent Sujal Jethwani told Cointelegraph that India’s crypto community is growing fast despite heavy tax burdens. A crypto key opinion leader in India said the government will be unable to suppress crypto as digital-asset demand increases.  Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Binance Crypto-Powered Tour in Bhutan, Sujal Jethwani, a crypto educator with a community of about 400,000 across social media, expressed optimism that the Indian political landscape will change as more people get into crypto assets.  “If you see the numbers, all the stock market and forex traders are moving to crypto,” Jethwani told Cointelegraph. “There’s a huge surge of crypto traders and investors in India right now. People are not going to leave it.” Read more