India’s FIU receives resume request from four exchanges

The Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-India), responsible for analyzing suspicious financial transactions, has received requests from four more offshore crypto exchanges to resume operations in India, according to a senior government official. At the start of 2024, India had banned nine crypto exchanges for non-compliance with anti-money laundering laws. The FIU lifted the ban on Kucoin in March after imposing a penalty, while proceedings for Binance are still pending.

• “Apart from Kucoin and Binance, we have received four more requests from the offshore crypto exchanges,” said the senior government official.
• Before banning the nine exchanges, the FIU-India had issued show-cause notices to them for violating India’s anti-money laundering regulations.
• “India’s thriving grassroots crypto adoption and Web3 developer activity have made it a significant market that cannot be ignored, despite unfavourable taxation and strict compliance,” said Sharat Chandra, co-founder of India Blockchain Forum.

Currently, there are 46 registered crypto entities in India, and with Kucoin and Binance, this number will rise to 48. Despite global trends towards regulating crypto assets, the Reserve Bank of India maintains its stance on banning them. In September 2023, the IMF-FSB published guidelines for crypto regulations, which were adopted by G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in October, calling for swift and coordinated implementation.