Key Takeaways:
- Sumit Gupta, CEO of CoinDCX, has publicly dismissed speculations of a Coinbase acquistion
- The denial comes after a $44.2 million hack and claims of a valuation drop below $1 billion
- CoinDCX has announced a recovery plan that includes a 25% bounty for stolen funds
Sumit Gupta, the co-founder and CEO of CoinDCX, an Indian based cryptocurrency exchange, has openly denied allegations that it is in acquisition talks with Coinbase. The denial was made just days after the platform was hacked for $44.2 million and was apparently valued at less than $1 billion; it is significantly less than the valuation of $2.2 billion, which was three years ago.
Gupta was quick to tweet back, denying the Coinbase acquisition rumors-
Additionally, other co-founders of CoinDCX also retweeted his tweet, denying the rumors.
Following the hack, rumors had started circulating that Coinbase was considering a full acquisition of CoinDCX to expand its footprint in the Indian crypto market. Coinbase already holds equity in CoinDCX, according to Tracxn.
Due to legislative restrictions, Coinbase had previously tried to launch operations in India but had to scale back due to regulatory constraints in 2023. But in March 2025, the firm obtained a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) license, igniting rumors that it would return to the market.
Details of the CoinDCX Hack
On July 19, approximately $44.2 million in assets were drained from an internal wallet linked to a partner exchange. While customer assets stored in cold wallets were not affected, the stolen funds were quickly funneled through privacy tools such as Tornado Cash and a portion of the funds was bridged from Solana to Ethereum, as reported by famous on-chain investigator ZachXBT on his telegram channel, complicating recovery efforts. CoinDCX has since launched a recovery program, including a 25% bounty for the return of stolen funds.
Current Status and Outlook
The recent hack of CoinDCX led to rumors of a Coinbase acquisition and reports of a decrease in its valuation. Nonetheless, they have been put to rest by their CEO, who has told them to ignore the rumors on his official X account. In a press release by CoinDCX, stated that they are constantly working to strengthen their risk models and compliance frameworks. Their goal is to expand access to more users while keeping the highest level of security.
In a recent tweet, Gupta expressed confidence in its ability to recover from the hack and continue operating in India’s expanding crypto sector.
