India Will Block Access To Binance And Kraket Crypto Exchange Services

The Indian government will block the Binance URL (photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - India's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU IND), an Indian government agency that regulates financial transactions, announced that nine global crypto exchanges including Binance, Kraken, and Kucoin operate "illegally" in the country.

In an official broadcast posted on the Delhi Press Information Bureau website on Thursday, December 28, FIU IND Director has written a letter to the Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block the URL of the entity operating illegally without complying with the provisions of the Money Laundering Prevention Act (PML) in India.

BREAKING UPDATE FROM INDIA AGAINST CRYPTO EXCHANGES : Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU IND) issues compliance Show Cause Notices to nine crypto exchanges. Including BINANCE, Kucoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, Mexc Global, Bitfinex pic.twitter.com/K5nMiKUPKg

— Crypto India (@CryptooIndia) December 28, 2023

BREEKING UPDATE FROM INDIA AGAINST CRYPTO EXCHANGES: Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU IND) issues compliance Show Causes Notices to nine crypto exchanges. Implementing BINANCE, Kucoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, Mexc Global, Bitfinex pic.twitter.com/K5nMicUPKg

The nine crypto exchanges in question include: Binance, Kucoin, Kraken, Huobi, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, and Bitfinex.

Because according to FIU IND, Virtual Digital Asset Service Providers (VDA SPs) operate in India (both abroad and domestically) and engage in activities such as exchanges between virtual digital assets and fiat currencies, transfer of virtual digital assets, storage or administration of virtual digital assets or instruments that allow control of virtual digital assets, etc. must be registered with FIU IND as a Reporting Entity and comply with a series of obligations as mandated in the 2002 Money Laundering Prevention Act (PMLA).

This obligation is activity-based and does not depend on physical presence in India. The regulation stipulates reporting, recording, and other obligations to VDA SP based on the PML Law which also includes registration on FIU IND," the broadcast reads further.

To date, FIU IND has reported that 31 VDA SPs have been registered on FIU IND. However, several overseas entities despite serving most users in India are not registered and are under the framework of Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorism Financing (CFT).