CoinDCX is an Indian cryptocurrency exchange startup founded in April 2018 by Neeraj Khandelwal and Sumit Gupta. ^[1]

Overview

The CoinDCX crypto exchange aggregates global liquidity and trading services onto a single platform. It is backed by investors such as Polychain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and HDR Group, operator of BitMEX.^[3]

"Our mission is simple: to provide easy access to Web3 experiences and democratize investments in virtual digital assets" - CoinDCX mission statement^[1]

In December 2019, CoinDCX was listed among the ʻTop Emerging Blockchain Startupsʼ in the world by Tracxn. In April 2020, they launched the #TryCrypto movement to welcome Indians into the Crypto community. ^[12]

In June 2020, DCX Learn was launched, a learning portal to educate India about virtual digital assets, blockchain, and the web. ^[11]

In August 2021, CoinDCX became Indiaʼs first crypto unicorn after raising $90 million (INR 670 crores) in their Series C funding at a valuation of $1.1 billion. ^[17]

“This achievement belongs to each and every DCX team member. I can guarantee this decade is going to be the DCX Decade where we will disrupt the FinTech sector with innovative cutting edge technologies. I wish more strength to the CoinDCX team towards onboarding 50 million Indians on the platform." - Neeraj Khandelwal, Co-Founder of CoinDCX said^[17]

In February 2022, CoinDCX partnered with Solidus Labs, a risk-monitoring firm to enhance Anti Money Laundering Protection. According to co-founder, Neeraj Khandelwal, partnering with Solidus Labs is to help ensure CoinDCX maintains its paramount pillars of being transparent and continues its commitment to being the safest and most secure crypto exchange in India. ^[21]

In August 2022, the company launched Unfold 2022, an exclusive Web3 event geared towards helping build the Web3 ecosystem. Unfold 2023 was also announced in August 2023 and it took place in October 2023. In August 2022, CoinDCX introduced Okto, a gateway to DeFi, and future use cases of Web3 in a bid to help rebuild the internet as originally envisioned. ^[12][23]

In November 2022 CoinDCX published its first Proof of Reserves report and shared details of on-chain and off-chain assets in a move to enable greater transparency. ^[18]

In January 2023, CoinDCX launched Namaste Web3, an exclusive Web3 mass education initiative to introduce Web3 to the Indian community and showcase its manifold benefits for businesses, individuals, and society as a whole. To kickstart the initiative, CoinDCX partnered with Forbes to host a 10-city roadshow, with the primary goal of disseminating knowledge and awareness about the future of the Internet and engaging all stakeholders in the web3 ecosystem – developers, start-ups, users, investors, regulators, and the government. ^[19]

On March 5, 2024, CoinDCX launched its premier Affiliate Program for crypto creators. Using the affiliate dashboard, users are able to track performance across different timeframes. This helps to optimize campaigns. ^[20]

Funding

In March 2019, CoinDCX raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its seed round led by venture capital company Bain Capital Ventures. Other notable angel investors including Sanjay Mehta, Sung Ho Choi, Karn Nagpal, Jatin Aneja, Rafael Ugolini, and Utsav Somani also participated in the round. ^[8]

In March 2020, CoinDCX raised $3 million in Series A funding from Bain Capital Ventures, HDR Cadenza, and Polychain. In May 2020, $2.5 million was raised in a follow-on investment round led by Polychain Capital. In December 2020, ₹1 billion was raised in a Series B funding led by Block.one. ^[4]

In August 2021, CoinDCX raised $90 million in a Series C funding round led by B Capital. In April 2022, the company raised $135 million in Series D led by Pantera Capital and Steadview Capital. ^[4]

Products

DCX Margin

DCX Margin is the margin trading platform of CoinDCX. With DCX Margin, a user does not need to "own" or have possession of the underlying asset to enter a contract. The company provides the funding for a user to trade against other assets, at a leverage ratio of up to 5:1. ^[13]

DCX Lend

DCX Lend is an instant automated lending platform through which users earn a fixed passive income on their crypto assets. All users' funds are stored in secure multi-signature wallets protected by BitGo’s USD 100 million insurance policy. ^[14]

DCX Futures

DCX Futures maximizes a user's trading potential with leverage of up to 15X. Users can trade with various liquidity options from leading crypto future exchanges wherein users get profitable arbitrage opportunities. DCX Futures has a variety of contracts to choose from – Vanilla, Inverse, and Perpetuals. Traders can customize a portfolio that suits their needs. ^[15]

DCX Insta

DCX Insta is a platform provided for users to invest in crypto assets like BTC, ETH, XRP, and more with INR (Indian Rupee). ^[16]

DCX Staking

The CoinDCX Staking feature allows users to earn income for holding cryptos in their CoinDCX wallets. It supports EOS, Tezos (XTZ), NEO, Harmony (ONE), Qtum, TRON (TRX), etc. Staking with CoinDCX ensures that users do not have to give up on their liquidity while earning rewards on idle cryptocurrencies. Users can withdraw their cryptocurrencies or sell them off without any early withdrawal penalties (no lock-up period). ^[7]

ETH 2.0 Staking

CoinDCX supports the upgradation of the Ethereum network (Ethereum 2.0) by providing a staking product for users who are unable to stake on the deposit contract for various reasons. It provides a '"locked staking"' facility with a minimum requirement of 0.1ETH. The estimated rewards vary from 10% to 20%. The user-staked funds will not be available for trading and withdrawal before Ethereum phase 1.5. ^[7]

On December 16, 2020, CoinDCX announced it was set to launch liquid ETH-backed tokens for its users. It is a 1:1 Ethereum token and was issued to all Ethereum staked holders who have staked or may stake in the future. The token issue took place in early 2021. ^[4]

CoinDCX Learn

In June 2020, CoinDCX launched a learning platform dedicated to blockchain and cryptocurrencies. According to a June 16 announcement, the CoinDCX Learn platform is a blockchain and cryptocurrency academy that offers guides, articles, courses, and lectures. The firm’s CEO and co-founder Sumit Gupta commented:

“With the potential to accelerate financial inclusion in India, as well as opening gateways to new forms of investing, cryptocurrencies can benefit everyone. However, for Indians to take full advantage of crypto, we need to lay the groundwork through appropriate education. With DCX Learn, we want to arm users with the knowledge necessary to navigate crypto markets.”^[5][6]

Awards

• Great Place to Work (2021 & 2022)
• Tech Start-up of the Year - Entrepreneur Awards
• Elite list of Unicorns in India 2021 by Tracxn
• Next Hottest Product by Amplitude^[22]

BitOasis Acquisition

On July 3, 2024, CoinDCX bought fellow trading platform BitOasis for an undisclosed amount, marking its first expansion into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). ^[24]

The acquisition will boost BitOasis' expansion across the region, according to an emailed announcement on Wednesday, July 3. ^[25]

@CoinDCX acquires MENA region's leading virtual assets trading platform @bitoasis. Join us to celebrate a significant step towards our vision of global expansion and creating a more accessible and secure crypto experience for users. #WAGMI - CoinDCX tweeted^[25]

Investor Protection Fund Launch

In August 2024, CoinDCX established a crypto investors protection fund to compensate users in case of a security breach. Co-founder Sumit Gupta told CoinDesk that if other exchanges did this too "it would be better for the ecosystem." ^[26]

The investor protection fund is designed to:

"compensate users for losses incurred in extremely rare scenarios such as security breaches" and at the start, it will hold nearly $6 million (INR 50 crore), which comes solely from "our profits," - Gupta said.^[26]

The decision was made after the $230 million hack on WazirX which caused a loss of nearly 45% of customer funds. After the hack, Gupta was one of the first to criticize a work-in-progress plan suggested by WazirX to manage the customer funds. ^[26]

"This is approximately 1.8% of the roughly $350 million customer funds we hold and we intend to continue to increase it over time. We will contribute 2% of whatever monthly brokerage income we make. The thought was to start somewhere and then continue to revaluate this number moving forward. International exchanges have done this. But in India we want to at least take the lead and start this as a standard." - Gupta stated

"Nobody can assure 100% security. But how do we ensure customers remain protected even if there is the slightest chance of a breach. In our case, we don't concentrate our funds in one wallet, it's diversified. This is another step in that direction." - he concluded.^[26]