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CoinDCX Confirms $15.99M USDT Loss After Earlier Breach Denial
Failed Wallet Sweeps Left Funds in Deprecated Addresses
TL;DR
- CoinDCX confirmed a 15.99 million USDT loss after an automated wallet-sweeping process failed.
- CEO Sumit Gupta had earlier described breach warnings as a possible “false alarm.”
- Bitquery traced funds through multiple wallets to exchanges, while Tether froze part of the transferred USDT.
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CoinDCX confirmed on October 25, 2026, that it lost 15.99 million USDT from wallets that had been deprecated after its July 2025 hack. The exchange attributed the loss to an internal sweeping failure involving deposits that users continued sending to the old addresses. CoinDCX said those deposits were still credited to users, but the subsequent transfer of the assets into its main wallets failed. The company said it absorbed the resulting operational loss.
CoinDCX said its automated sweeping service was supposed to move deposits from those deprecated addresses into active wallets but “had failed for a particular period.” Trading and withdrawals continued as normal, according to the exchange, which also said it would increase monitoring of its older infrastructure.
CoinDCX later acknowledged that its review took longer than it should have. “It took us some time to do the thorough review of the deprecated infrastructure and confirm the sequence of events. We could have been more proactive, but we shared this update as soon as we had the complete picture,” the exchange said.
CoinDCX Reverses Earlier Position on Wallet Activity
The confirmation followed an earlier denial from CoinDCX leadership. On October 22, researcher Darcy flagged suspicious TRON transfers. CEO Sumit Gupta described the warnings as a possible “false alarm” and said hackers appeared to be reusing addresses compromised during the previous incident. CoinDCX also said some reports about the activity were misleading.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT challenged that explanation. He pointed to activity showing that wallets described as retired had still been used for deposits in April and May 2026. The exchange’s later acknowledgment of the failed sweeping process confirmed that funds had continued reaching deprecated addresses after users had been advised not to use them.
Bitquery Traces USDT Movements From CoinDCX Wallets
Bitquery’s on-chain investigation showed activity across multiple wallets associated with CoinDCX and provided a timeline for the movement of the funds.
Bitquery also observed sweeping activity after the suspected theft. Its findings showed continued operational activity involving addresses CoinDCX had characterized as deprecated. Blockchain data, however, could not determine how the person responsible gained access to the wallets.
The cause of that access remained unresolved in the material provided. CoinDCX explained the failed internal transfer process and the accumulation of deposits in deprecated wallets, but it had not explained how the unauthorized transfers occurred or why the old wallets remained operational.
CoinDCX Reports 23.1 Million Registered Users
DefiLlama listed CoinDCX reserves at $173.3 million on October 26, alongside $1.47 million in 24-hour spot trading volume. The two figures measure different things: reported assets and trading activity. They do not show the exchange’s customer liabilities or establish whether deposits are fully backed.
CoinDCX’s September report recorded 23.1 million registered users and a 57.07 crore INR Crypto Investor Protection Fund. The exchange had previously lost roughly $44 million during the July 2025 hack. Separately, TRM Labs found that infrastructure and operational compromises accounted for roughly 76% of crypto hack losses during the first half of 2026 despite representing 15% of incidents.
Coinbase invested in CoinDCX in October 2025 as part of an expansion into India and the Middle East. Chainalysis ranked India sixth globally for grassroots crypto adoption. Those developments preceded the latest scrutiny over CoinDCX’s handling of its deprecated wallet infrastructure and its reversal from an initial breach denial to confirmation of the loss.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
