The Financial Intelligence Unit of India (FIU-IND) has issued compliance notices to nine offshore cryptocurrency exchanges and has requested the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to block their websites.
The affected exchanges include Binance, Kucoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, and Bitfinex. The FIU stated in its announcement that these exchanges have not complied with the country’s anti-money laundering law and are operating illegally.
The statement reads:
The statement also points out that the obligation is based on the activities of the operators, rather than whether they have a physical presence in India. The regulations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act specify “reporting, record-keeping, and other obligations of VDA SPs, including registration with the Financial Intelligence Unit of India.”
While 31 operators have registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit, the institution stated that several offshore entities serving a large number of Indian users have not yet registered.