CoinDCX Faces Leadership Shake-Up as CHRO and CISO Exit

India’s second largest crypto exchange, CoinDCX, has been witnessing leadership exodus in the past few months. The most recent exit was that of CoinDCX’s CHRO Mudita Chauhan and CISO Sirdhar G. They have stepped down from their roles on September 9.

“After five impactful years at CoinDCX, Mudita Chauhan, CHRO, has decided to move on to pursue new opportunities. Sridhar G, CISO, is also moving on after three years with us, leaving behind a strong legacy through his contributions,” said CoinDCX cofounder Sumit Gupta in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

 “Neeraj Khandelwal (Co-founder) and I have truly enjoyed working with both of them. They have been instrumental in shaping our journey not just by building systems and processes, but also by fostering a culture of resilience and trust. We remain deeply grateful and wish them the very best in their next professional endeavors,” he added.

He further stated that unicorn is currently in the process of filing the vacant roles, while the outgoing CXOs are in their transition phase. “We have already identified/in the process of closing the next leaders for these roles and are ensuring a smooth transition,” he said.

This comes months after CTO (chief technology officer) Vivek Gupta, and legal head Tushar Tarun had quit the crypto exchange amid its global expansion plans.

Sridhar joined CoinDCX in 2023 after a stint at Flipkart. He is a BITS Pilani graduate, who brings over two decades of experience in cybersecurity and information technology. He has spent the majority of his career at Wipro, where he held the position of Chief Information and Security Officer, before moving to Flipkart in 2019.

On the other hand, Chauhan, who came on board at CoinDCX in 2020, has more than 15 years of human resources experience. Before her current role, she held positions at IDFC Bank, Bank of America, and Reliance Industries, according to her LinkedIn profile.

In a significant leadership shake-up, Chauhan and Sridhar G are among three CXOs who have exited the Bengaluru-based startup in the past four months. Additionally, there have been reports suggesting that the company’s Head of Legal Affairs, Tushar Tarun, may also be planning to leave.

It is pertinent to note that CoinDCX was also hit by a cyber attack in July, which resulted in approximately $44.2 million worth of crypto currency being stolen from its internal operational account.

This marks the second major cyberattack on an Indian crypto exchange in a year. On 18 July 2024, WazirX lost crypto assets worth $234 million in a similar breach.

This was linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. Trading and withdrawals were immediately suspended. WazirX’s parent company, Zettai, proposed a recovery plan which, although supported by 93% of creditors, was initially rejected by the Singapore High Court in June due to transparency concerns.