India is increasing its pressure on cryptocurrency exchanges, targeting overseas platforms such as cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which it claims are operating illegally within its borders.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of India has issued compliance notices to various platforms, including Binance, Kucoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global and Bitfinex. According to a statement made late on Thursday, the FIU also asked the Ministry of Information to block the URLs of nine organisations.
“Despite serving a significant portion of Indian users, some offshore entities were not registered and did not fall under the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT) framework,” the FIU said.
Earlier this year, the Indian government introduced anti-money laundering provisions into the crypto sector while tightening supervision of digital assets and bringing them in line with other countries. Authorities imposed a tax on transactions in 2022, dealing a significant blow to local crypto exchanges and causing transaction volumes to drop.
The country's local exchanges have complained that the new tax is driving Indian crypto investors to offshore platforms that do not impose the tax, further affecting their income.
Binance has faced increasing pressure from regulators around the world over the past year. In November, the company agreed to pay $4.3 billion after pleading guilty to anti-money laundering and US sanctions violations.
*This is not investment advice.