CoinDCX’s Sumit Gupta Denies Acquisition Talks With Coinbase

SUMMARY

Gupta said, CoinDCX is ‘super focused’ on building for India’s crypto story and not up for sale

Mint reported citing sources close to the matter that Coinbase is in discussions for a potential acquisition of CoinDCX

CoinDCX assets worth $44 Mn were stolen from the crypto exchange’s internal operational account, earlier this month

Crypto unicorn CoinDCX’s founder Sumit Gupta has dismissed a report suggesting that US-based cryptocurrency major Coinbase is in advanced negotiations to acquire the company, which is recovering from a recent $44 Mn hack.

In an X post, Gupta said, “Ignore the rumours! CoinDCX is ‘super focused’ on building for India’s crypto story and not up for sale!”

This comes after a Mint report, citing sources close to the matter, said that Coinbase is in discussions for a potential acquisition of CoinDCX, which would possibly value the latter at less than a billion dollars, that is below its peak valuation of $2.2 Bn.

Founded in 2018 by Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal, CoinDCX allows users to trade in cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. The platform claims to have a user base of over 1.6 Cr and more than 500 registered crypto assets.

The startup turned out to become India’s first crypto exchange unicorn in 2021 after it raised $90 Mn in a Series C round, led by Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group.

Second Major Cyberattack

CoinDCX suffered a major cyberattack earlier this month, where assets worth $44 Mn (nearly INR 380 Cr) were stolen from the crypto exchange’s internal operational account.

The company immediately contained the cyber attack by isolating the affected operational account and eventually launched a recovery bounty programme with a potential pool of $11 Mn (about INR 100 Cr).

Further, the startup also invited ethical hackers, white-hat researchers and other cybersecurity experts to participate in the bounty programme.

On the financial front, CoinDCX’s standalone operating revenue declined 12.41% to INR 391.70 Cr in FY24 from INR 447.70 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Its net profit also dropped 45.27% to INR 15.46 Cr in the year under review from INR 28.25 Cr in FY23, according to Tofler.

Earlier in June, the company’s chief technology officer Vivek Gupta stepped down after a five-year stint at CoinDCX.

The unicorn is strengthening its leadership bench and is hiring across key roles. Back then, the company said, “We have over 100 open positions, including new senior leadership roles such as CFO and general counsel.”