Coinbase, one of the top three cryptocurrency exchanges by trading volume, has announced that it is expanding into India by making strategic investments in CoinDCX, a Web3 infrastructure startup.
In an announcement post on X, Coinbase shared that India and the Middle-East Region have more than 100 million crypto users, with the number expected to grow rapidly.
After facing regulatory problems in the past, Coinbase is trying again to make a bigger name for itself in India with this move. According to industry watchers, the investment is meant to help CoinDCX with its goal of making blockchain tools for digital identity and decentralized payments that are specific to India’s rapidly growing crypto ecosystem.
Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong, said, “There’s rapid tech adoption in India and the Middle East, and already 100M+ crypto holders. Excited to do more in these markets and help to keep accelerating adoption. Coinbase is going global.”
Sumit Gupta, Co-Founder of CoinDCX, added, “This isn’t just about capital, it is about conviction in our long-term vision, our regulatory-first approach, and India and the UAE’s growing role in the global crypto movement.”
The completion of funding, subject to regulatory approvals and other standard closing conditions, is a continuation of the previous fundraiser. Once completed, the company’s post-money value will be $2.45 billion.
Coinbase eyeing rapid expansion
In the recent past, Coinbase has been working to expand globally. It has partnered with a couple of financial institutions to roll out crypto services. In July, JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in the U.S., teamed up with Coinbase to make crypto easier for well over 80 million Chase customers to use. Similarly, it also teamed up with PNC Bank, to offer PNC’s banking customers the ability to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin directly in their PNC account.
It has also expanded its International Exchange by adding dozens of perpetual futures and derivative products to attract institutional traders. Coinbase has also obtained important licenses, such as registering with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which indicates that the company is gradually re-entering the market. The company is building out its payment infrastructure with USDC stablecoin, merchant tools, and on-chain financial services to make itself a full-stack Web3 platform.
About CoinDCX
CoinDCX is India’s biggest crypto exchange, and currently serves over 20 million investors in India. In 2024, CoinDCX also expanded into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by acquiring BitOasis.
In 2024, CoinDCX had set up a Crypto Investors Protection Fund (CIPF) with INR 50 crore to pay users back for losses caused by security breaches or other bad events. This was in response to growing worries about crypto security. The company promised to put 2% of its brokerage income into this fund every year. The goal is to build trust in the Indian crypto ecosystem over time.
However, it faced a cyberattack on the platform in July 2025 led to the theft of $44 million from an internal operational account. Importantly, no user funds were lost because customer assets were kept safe in cold storage. CoinDCX quickly cut off the affected wallet, stopped related services, and worked with outside cybersecurity firms to improve its infrastructure and stop future breaches.
CoinDCX also started a white-hat recovery bounty program, which pays ethical hackers up to 25% of any money they help find and get back. This project shows how the platform is working to keep users’ assets safe and create a collaborative security environment.
At the time of writing, CoinDCX had a 24-hour trading volume of about $12.33 million and total assets held more than $128 million, as per data by CoinMarketCap.
Coinbase said the choice of teaming with CoinDCX shows that it believes in India’s developer community and the country’s potential to be a center for blockchain innovation. The company also hinted that it would work with local regulators and startups in the future to encourage compliant crypto innovation.