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Paytm Share Price: Shares of fintech giant One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, dropped as much as 9%; What investors should know
Paytm Shares Plunged: Shares of fintech giant One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, dropped as much as 9% to an intraday low of Rs 773.90 on Friday following reports that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating Paytm as part of a cryptocurrency scam.
The news caused a sharp decline in Paytm’s stock, which hit Rs 773.05 per share on the NSE, representing a drop of 9%. By mid-morning, the stock had partially recovered, trading 3.32% lower at Rs 820.95 per share.
However, the company clarified in a stock exchange filing that it had not received any inquiry from the ED.
In a stock exchange filing, the company said it had not received any new notice or communication from the ED and termed the reports as “factually incorrect and misleading.”
In response, Paytm said, “We confirm that we have not received any such new notice, communication, or query from the Enforcement Directorate regarding the matter mentioned in the media articles.”
“The information published is factually incorrect and misleading and we had not received any query from the media prior to the publishing of this news article,” it added.
Paytm is among several payment gateways, including Razorpay, PayU, Easebuzz, and others, being investigated by the ED. The probe is connected to the HPZ Token cryptocurrency scam, allegedly run by Chinese nationals. Over the past two years, the ED has frozen nearly Rs 500 crore in virtual accounts across various platforms, including Paytm, in connection with the scam.
The accused are said to have defrauded investors of over Rs 2,200 crore, with the illicit funds being funneled out of India. The ED has frozen a portion of these funds during transactions that were held for brief periods on payment gateway platforms.
According to the ED’s investigation, Paytm holds around Rs 2.8 crore of the alleged ‘proceeds of crime,’ while other platforms like PayU and Easebuzz had larger shares.
Paytm Q3 Results
In addition to the investigation, One97 Communications recently reported a narrowing of its consolidated loss to Rs 208.5 crore for Q3 FY25, a slight improvement over the Rs 221.7 crore loss during the same period last year. The company’s revenue from operations for the quarter fell by 35.8% to Rs 1,827.8 crore, largely due to declines in revenue from payment processing, financial services, and marketing services.