According to a report by CoinDesk, a few days after the Indian government issued compliance notices to 9 entities, Apple has removed the applications of Binance, KuCoin, and other cryptocurrency exchanges from its Indian App Store.
As reported by Zombit earlier, the Financial Intelligence Unit of India (FIU-IND) issued compliance notices to 9 offshore cryptocurrency exchanges in December 2023, and requested the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to block their websites. The named exchanges include Binance, KuCoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, and Bitfinex. The FIU stated in a declaration that these exchanges did not comply with the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Act and were operating illegally.
The well-known offshore cryptocurrency exchange OKX has also been removed from the Indian App Store, even though the platform did not receive a notice from the FIU. According to TechCrunch, Bitstamp was named by the FIU but has not been removed from the Indian App Store.
An insider revealed to CoinDesk that this process involves a significant amount of paperwork and is still ongoing, which is why the websites of these exchanges are still operational in India. The insider also mentioned that the Indian government may be waiting for responses from these entities before taking further action.
Reportedly, the applications of these exchanges continue to be displayed on the Google Play Store.