Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of US-based crypto exchange Coinbase, has invested an undisclosed amount in Indian cryptocurrency platform CoinDCX.
According to a Wednesday Coinbase announcement, the placement was made through the exchange’s investment arm, Coinbase Ventures. CoinDCX co-founder and CEO Sumit Gupta wrote in an X post that the investment took place at a post-money valuation of $2.45 billion.
In a separate announcement, CoindDCX claims to serve over 20 million customers in India and the United Arab Emirates, following its late 2024 acquisition of local crypto exchange BitOasis.
Coinbase noted in its announcement that, as of July, CoinDCX’s annual revenue stood at approximately $141 million and its yearly transaction volume across products reached $165 billion. Furthermore, the assets held under custody by the Indian exchange reportedly stood at $1.2 billion at the time.
Coinbase refused to answer Cointelegraph’s request for comment, and CoinDCX had not responded by publication.
India and the Middle East are key markets
Coinbase claimed that “India and the Middle East are set to play a big role in the future of crypto.” The exchange points out that the region is home to 1.4 billion people, and according to a late August estimate, India alone is home to roughly 115 million crypto users. The investment also follows hackers stealing $44 million from CoinDCX in July.
Still, the comments also follow Indian authorities, showing their continued hostility towards the crypto industry. Earlier this month, India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal expressed skepticism about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), with claims that such assets have “no back-end guaranteeing any value.”
The comments came as India prepares to launch new digital currency initiatives backed by the local central bank, the Reserve Bank of India. Still, the local administration is more open to blockchain technology than to cryptocurrencies.
In early August, Paul Grewal, chief legal officer at Coinbase, met with the IT Minister of India’s Karnataka state. The executive publicly thanked the state official and said that the firm will explore how it “can further support Karnataka’s tech leadership.”
Coinbase keeps investing
This is the latest in a series of recent investments by Coinbase. Also this week, the crypto exchange was revealed to have participated in an $8.1 million funding round into Crown, a São Paulo-based fintech looking to launch a Brazilian real–denominated stablecoin.
Stablecore, a stablecoin infrastructure platform serving credit unions and regional banks, has also recently raised $20 million in a seed round with participation from Coinbase Ventures. Coinbase Ventures also led the late September $47 million strategic investment round in stablecoin payments firm RedotPay.
Also in September, Coinbase Ventures led a $14.6 million round for Bastion, a startup providing white-label stablecoin issuance with backing from Sony, Samsung, A16z and others.