Indian Police Arrest GainBitcoin Ponzi Scheme Suspect at Mumbai Airport

On March 12, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Ayush Varshney—co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) of Darwin Labs—at Mumbai Airport as he allegedly tried to leave the country, over his purported role in the notorious GainBitcoin Ponzi scheme. Probes uncovered the scam was run by Variabletech Pte. Ltd., which lured investors with promises of sky-high returns on crypto investments. Law enforcement accused Darwin Labs of building and deploying core technological infrastructure for the scheme—including the MCAP crypto token and ERC-20 smart contracts. Darwin also provided technical support for several fraud-linked platforms: GBMiners.com (a Bitcoin mining site), a Bitcoin payment gateway, the CoinE Bank Bitcoin wallet, and the GainBitcoin investment website—all used to entice and defraud investors. Media reports say the scheme launched in 2015 and operated across multiple Indian states. It’s estimated to involve roughly 1.9 billion Indian rupees (around $2.1 million) in funds and 29,000 bitcoins—whose current value tops $2 billion.