Coinbase Eyes India’s CoinDCX in Sub-$1B Deal After $44M Hack – Bullish Move or Desperate Play?
Coinbase makes power play for India’s crypto crown jewel.
Fresh off a $44M security breach, CoinDCX might become Coinbase’s ticket to dominating India’s booming crypto market. The under-$1B price tag? Chump change for a firm that spends more on office snacks than some nations’ GDP.
Why this matters:
- India represents the next frontier in crypto adoption
- Coinbase gets instant access to 20M+ users
- Regulatory headaches come included at no extra cost
The deal smells like equal parts opportunism and panic—classic crypto strategy. Will this be Coinbase’s masterstroke or just another overpriced acquisition in an industry that never learns? Only the blockchain knows.
Coinbase’s strategic bet on India
For Coinbase, the deal would mark its second major acquisition this year, following the $2.9 billion purchase of Deribit. It also follows smaller M&A activity with crypto startups Liquifi, Spindl, and Iron Fish. Coinbase already holds equity stakes in both CoinDCX and its competitor CoinSwitch.
The acquisition WOULD accelerate Coinbase’s re-entry into India after securing a Financial Intelligence Unit license in March. The company briefly launched operations in the country in 2022 before pulling back due to regulatory challenges.
A finalized deal would position Coinbase to scale its trading services in India just as the government is preparing its first formal crypto policy.
Deal comes after major security breach at CoinDCX
The timing follows a $44 million hack that hit CoinDCX earlier this month. On July 19, attackers drained funds from an internal hot wallet used for liquidity provisioning on a partner exchange. Customer funds, which remained in cold storage, were not affected.
The company confirmed it used treasury reserves to fully cover the loss and has since launched a bounty program offering up to 25% of any recovered funds, capped at $11 million. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT flagged the breach, revealing that the attackers used Tornado Cash and cross-chain bridges to obfuscate fund movements.
Two wallets holding over 155,000 Solana (SOL) and 4,400 ethereum (ETH) remain under observation. While speculation has pointed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, the attribution remains unconfirmed.
As part of its response, CoinDCX halted web3 services, processed more than 31,000 withdrawal requests in a single day, and put new security measures in place. The breach has reignited scrutiny over Indian centralized exchanges, with critics pointing to CoinDCX’s high hot wallet exposure and a lack of transparent custody audits.
