Crypto exchange Gate says it has not handed over any of the funds frozen in an Indian police fraud case, after a user who says his account has been locked for more than a year said publicly that the exchange had told him a court had approved moving his assets to the complainant. The case, run by the Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department, already has a court order directing Gate to convert the crypto in four accounts into USDT and send it to the victim’s wallet. Gate’s position is that the account holder can still contest that order.
What Gate said
In a statement on Sunday, Gate said it is “an independent third party” in the dispute. “We don’t make decisions about funds in this case based on one side’s evidence, and we have not committed to any asset handover,” the exchange said. “Every request is reviewed internally, case by case, and no assets have been handed over.”
Gate laid out its version of the timeline. The freeze request reached it in September 2025, and its anti-money-laundering team kept asking the police for more evidence. A request related to handing over the assets followed in April 2026, which Gate said it “did not simply comply” with. When it followed up in September 2026, police told it the case was still under court review. “Under the court order, Gate continues to hold the funds while the user has the chance to respond,” the statement said.
The exchange also said its local lawyers had advised that Gate “can’t mount a defense or challenge the court order on the user’s behalf,” but that the user can do so through the court process. Gate’s Chinese-language account posted the same statement earlier in the day, quoting the user’s complaint.
The user’s account of the freeze
The statement followed a Chinese-language post on Saturday by a Gate user going by keym, which had been viewed about 195,000 times by Sunday. He said he deposited 15 BTC to Gate on July 16, 2025, and received an account review email four days later asking him to explain where the coins came from. In September 2025, he said, Indian law enforcement emailed him to say he was linked to a crypto fraud case. He said the case went to an Indian court on March 6, 2026, and that Gate emailed him on Nov. 12 to say the court had approved transferring his account funds to the complainant’s wallet.
He said the account held more than $3 million in assets when it was frozen, and about $1.6 million now after the market slide. He argues the 15 BTC came from a cold wallet he had funded from Binance and OKX in 2023, and that neither of those accounts was frozen. AltcoinReporter could not verify the source of his funds or the full contents of his account.
Part of his story does check out on-chain. The 15 BTC deposit whose hash appears in Gate’s review email was confirmed in block 905,751 on July 16, 2025, sent from the same address named in a letter from the Andhra Pradesh CID that he also posted. The coins were worth about $1.77 million at the time and about $960,000 at Sunday’s price of roughly $64,000.
What the Indian side says
The Andhra Pradesh CID publicized the case earlier this month. According to The New Indian Express, case Cr No. 10/2025 began with a complaint from a woman in Tenali who lost about $1.5 million, or nearly Rs 15 crore, to a fake investment scheme. The CID said proceeds were routed through multiple wallets before reaching Gate Global Corporation, and that it “traced 15 Bitcoin transactions to four accounts on the Gate.io exchange.” Eight people were arrested, according to the report.
A special court in Guntur issued a property return order on Oct. 30, 2026, in Crl.M.P. No. 298/2026, directing Gate Global Corporation to convert the crypto in the four accounts into USDT and transfer it to the victim, the newspaper reported. An excerpt of an order the user posted lists four Gate account IDs, one of which matches the account number in the CID’s letter to him. Gate’s support account confirmed on Saturday that the restriction followed formal judicial letters from Andhra Pradesh and cited the same case and court application numbers.
What happens next
The two accounts are hard to square. The CID says a court has ordered the assets returned. Gate says it is still holding them while the user responds. The user says no tainted funds ever entered his account and that no one has shown him which deposit is supposed to link him to the fraud. Gate said it will share updates as the case moves. The next step depends on whether the user, through Indian counsel, challenges the Guntur order before Gate is asked to carry it out.
Freezes triggered by fund tracing are a recurring friction point for exchange users, because a single flagged transfer can lock an entire balance. In August, Kraken restricted accounts after dust transfers from HTX-linked wallets and kept the disputed funds separate while it worked with law enforcement.
FAQ
Has Gate handed the frozen funds to Indian authorities?
Gate says no assets have been handed over and that it continues to hold the funds while the user has a chance to respond to the court order.
What did the Indian court order?
According to The New Indian Express, a Guntur special court on Oct. 30 directed Gate Global Corporation to convert the crypto in four accounts into USDT and send it to the fraud victim’s wallet.
How much is involved?
The victim lost about $1.5 million, according to the CID. The user says his frozen account held more than $3 million when it was locked and about $1.6 million now.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
