Ayush Varshney, the co-founder of and chief technology officer of Darwin Labs, was arrested at Mumbai airport while reportedly attempting to leave India.
Darwin allegedly developed the technological infrastructure used in the alleged Ponzi scheme, which was launched in 2015.
In 2018, authorities arrested GainBitcoin’s founder Amit K. Bhardwaj as well as Darwin co-founders Sahil Baghla and Nikunj Jain.

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India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested the co-founder and chief technology officer of Darwin Labs, Ayush Varshney, for his alleged role in perpetuating the infamous GainBitcoin Ponzi scheme.

According to an announcement on Wednesday, the scam was operated by Variabletech Pte. Ltd., which lured investors with promises of high returns on cryptocurrency investments.

Darwin Labs allegedly played a key role in developing and deploying the fraudulent tech infrastructure behind the scheme, including the MCAP crypto token and ERC-20 smart contracts.

The firm also supported the GBMiners.com bitcoin mining platform, BitCoin Payment Gateway, CoinE Bank BitCoin wallet, and GainBitcoin investor website, which were also used to allegedly trick and steal from investors, according to the announcement.

A local CNBC TV18 affiliate reported the GainBitcoin scheme misappropriated roughly ₹19 crore ($2.1 million) and involved 29,000 mined bitcoins valued today at over $2 billion. The scheme was reportedly started in 2015 and spanned multiple states in India.

Varshney was intercepted by immigration authorities at Mumbai airport while allegedly attempting to leave India, and handed over to the CBI, which formally arrested him on March 10.

Gainbitcoin and GBMiners founder Amit K. Bhardwaj was arrested and tried in 2018 in an investigation that involved several other associates, including Bhardwaj’s brother, Ajay.

Tuesday's statement also names Sahil Baghla and Nikunj Jain as Darwin co-founders. Baghla and Jain were also arrested in 2018, according to local reports from the time, which referred to the case as a $300 million pyramid scheme.

CBI’s expanded probe follows a Supreme Court order dated December 13, 2023, directing the agency to investigate related incident reports connected to GainBitcoin, according to the release.

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