India is blocking access to exchanges like Binance

India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU IND) issued compliance notices to nine foreign digital asset service providers, alleging illegal transactions and violations of anti-money laundering regulations. Among those affected are prominent global cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Binance, KuCoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global and Bitfinex.

In a press release issued today, the FIU IND requested the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block the URLs of these companies, presumably to restrict access to their websites on Indian soil.

According to the document, to date, 31 digital asset service providers have been registered with the IND FIU. However, a number of offshore entities, which supply a significant proportion of Indian users, were not registered and did not comply with the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Terrorist Financing (CFT) Framework.

The regulation for digital asset providers in India, whether based in India or abroad, imposes specific requirements, such as registration with the Financial Intelligence Unit as a Reporting Entity. Once registered, they must adhere to the regulations set out in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of 2002, which sets out obligations aimed at preventing money laundering activities, including Know Your Customer (KYC) guidelines for client incorporation.

India, ranked as the top country in the Chainalysis Global Cryptocurrency Adoption Index in 2022, has become the second largest market by transaction volume globally, only surpassed by the United States.

Faced with the growing adoption of cryptocurrencies, Indian regulators are taking action. The country is working on a regulatory framework based on the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB). This framework, scheduled for launch in 2024, is expected to include advanced KYC standards for cryptocurrency companies, requirements to publish real-time reserve audits, and a uniform tax policy internationally, placing cryptoexchanges on the same status as authorized dealers, according to the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India.

K. Tovar

Source: Cointelegraph

(Reference image source: Dmytro Demidko, Unsplash)

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