Police in India’s northeastern state of Assam have nabbed three suspects tied to a sprawling crypto scam dubbed RSN Crypto, which reportedly swindled over 2,000 victims out of INR 10-20 crore ($1.14-2.29 million).
The arrests, announced on March 3, 2025, mark a significant crackdown on a scheme that dangled lucrative 2% daily returns through a fake online platform, only to leave investors high and dry.
The scam peddled a so-called RSN Crypto token, promising steady profits to lure folks in. But behind the scenes, authorities say the operators were converting the funds into Tether’s USDT stablecoin via exchanges like Binance, then funneling the money elsewhere. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) got involved, tracing the operation to a website hosted on an Amazon server with suspected ties to entities in China—a pattern that’s got law enforcement eyeing broader international links.
The three suspects in custody have admitted to manipulating crypto values and pressuring victims to invest, but the alleged ringleader is still on the run. Local media reports paint a grim picture: promises of quick riches hooked a wide swath of people across Assam and neighboring Meghalaya, many of whom sank in at least INR 50,000 ($600) expecting payouts that never came. It’s not a new playbook—Chinese-linked scams have been popping up more often, preying on India’s growing crypto fever. Just earlier this year, the Datameer trading app scam bled 700 investors for INR 10 million ($114,000), and last year, the Enforcement Directorate charged 299 Chinese entities over the HPZ Token fraud, another crypto mining ruse.
India’s crypto scene has exploded lately, with trading volumes hitting nearly $2 billion late last year as small-city investors chase new ways to make a buck. Some experts are even pegging the market to blow past $15 billion by 2035. But that growth’s a double-edged sword—illicit schemes are thriving in the hype. For now, Assam police are digging deeper, hunting the mastermind behind RSN Crypto, and warning folks to tread carefully in the wild west of digital assets. More arrests could be coming as they unravel where all that money went.
