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The CBI has arrested Darwin Labs co-founder Ayush Varshney, 1 of the main accused successful the ₹20,000 crore Gain Bitcoin currency scam case, officials said connected Wednesday (March 11, 2026).
The bureau had issued a Look Out Circular against Mr. Varshney. His effort to fly the state connected Monday (March 9, 2026) triggered an alert, starring to his detention astatine the Mumbai airport, they said. Mr. Varshney was formally arrested connected Tuesday (March 10, 2026).
According to the CBI, Darwin Labs designed and developed the integer infrastructure which formed the operational backbone of the alleged fraudulent endeavor Gain Bitcoin.
During the investigation, the bureau detected the alleged engagement of Darwin Labs Private Limited and its co-founders -- Mr. Varshney, Sahil Baghla and Nikunj Jain, the main superior serviceman and laminitis astatine Vaomi AI successful the design, improvement and deployment of a cryptocurrency token known arsenic MCAP and its associated ERC-20 astute contract.
In a statement, it said that Darwin Labs allegedly played a cardinal relation successful gathering the technological architecture underpinning the cryptocurrency ponzi scam perpetrated done a web of platforms, including the flagship tract www.gainbitcoin.com.
It was allegedly masterminded by Amit Bhardwaj (now deceased) and his member Ajay Bhardwaj, the officials said.
The institution developed respective cardinal components, including the Bitcoin mining excavation level GBMiners.com, a Bitcoin outgo gateway, the Coin Bank Bitcoin wallet and the Gain Bitcoin website utilized to interface with investors.
Launched successful 2015, the Gain Bitcoin cognition was camouflaged nether the facade of Variabletech Pte. Ltd, officials said.
The strategy lured the investors offering bonzer returns of 10% per period successful Bitcoin implicit an 18-month period, urging them to acquisition the integer currency from outer exchanges and deposit it with GainBitcoin done "cloud mining" contracts.
"The funds collected from investors were subsequently misappropriated. The lawsuit is being investigated nether Sections 120B, 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000," a CBI spokesperson said successful a statement.
"The exemplary followed a multi-level selling (MLM) structure, commonly associated with pyramid structured ponzi schemes, wherever payouts were babelike connected bringing successful caller investors. In its aboriginal days, investors received payouts successful Bitcoin, fuelling the illusion of a lucrative venture. However, arsenic the influx of caller superior dwindled by 2017, the charade began to crumble.
"In an effort to screen up the losses, GainBitcoin unilaterally switched payouts to their alleged in-house cryptocurrency called MCAP, which had importantly little worth than Bitcoin, further misleading investors," the CBI had said successful a connection aft the registration of the case.
The sheer standard and complexity of the scam resulted successful the registration of aggregate FIRs, from Jammu and Kashmir to Maharashtra and from Delhi to West Bengal.
The Supreme Court had handed implicit the probe into the lawsuit to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), owed to the expansive quality of the cognition and the planetary ramifications it entailed.
The bureau has launched a probe to unravel the afloat grade of the fraudulent activities, place each implicated parties, and hint the misappropriated funds, including those that whitethorn person crossed borders.
