Regulatory efforts concerning cryptocurrencies continue globally, with some countries considering outright bans as a simplistic solution. In India, however, the situation is more complex, with a potential ban affecting a vast number of crypto investors.
India’s Financial Intelligence Unit has requested the blocking of nine major <a href="https://en.bitcoinhaber.net/atletico-madrid-initiates-legal-battle-against-cryptocurrency-exchange-whalefin”>cryptocurrency exchanges for alleged illegal operations and violations of Anti-Money Laundering regulations. These include Binance, KuCoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate, Bittrex, Bitsamp, MEXC Global, and Bitfinex. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has already been approached to implement the block.
The FIU IND Director has written to the Ministry’s Secretary to block the URLs of organizations operating illegally without complying with the provisions of India’s PML Act. Despite 31 VDA SPs being registered with FIU IND, some offshore entities have not registered and are not covered by AML and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CFT) frameworks.
Crypto companies operating in India, whether domestically or offshore, are subject to regulations such as reporting to the Financial Intelligence Unit and compliance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). India was at the top of Chainalysis’s 2022 global crypto adoption index, representing a significant portion of the crypto ecosystem.
India’s increasing crypto adoption has prompted regulators to act. The country is working on a crypto regulation framework based on joint recommendations from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB), expected to be published in 2024. The framework is likely to include stringent KYC rules and real-time reserve proof audits for crypto companies.
However, exchanges serving the region may face a more negative approach during this process. In 2021, WazirX, India’s most popular exchange at the time, faced severe scrutiny for allegedly facilitating illegal outflows of funds. The situation was not much different two years ago, with operations, raids, and sanctions. Similar regulatory discussions were expected to be completed in 2021, but that did not materialize.