A smartphone displaying the Binance emblem and illustration of cryptocurrencies are positioned on a keyboard. FILE
| Photo Credit: REUTERS
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) despatched a discover to cryptocurrency change Binance for “operating illegally” in India by means of an offshore entity. Notices have been despatched to the agency in Seychelles, Cayman Islands and Switzerland. The other cryptocurrency companies to which notices have been despatched are Kucoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global and Bitfinex.
The FIU comes beneath the Finance Ministry’s Department of Revenue. “Virtual Digital Assets Service Providers [cryptocurrency services] were brought into the ambit of Anti Money Laundering/Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT) framework under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PML) Act, 2002 in March 2023,” the FIU mentioned in a press assertion. The notices have been despatched beneath Section 13 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
The FIU additionally wrote to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) asking them to block these providers’ web sites. While being compliant with Indian regulation in and of itself is “not contingent on physical presence in India”, the FIU mentioned these corporations had failed to observe “reporting obligations” to the federal government.
While 31 cryptocurrency companies have complied with these necessities, “several offshore entities though catering to a substantial part of Indian users were not getting registered and coming under the Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT) framework,” the FIU mentioned. Under these reporting obligations, cryptocurrency companies are required to report suspicious exercise like conventional banking establishments.
