India's Financial Intelligence Unit Cracks Down on Unregistered Crypto Platforms
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in India has issued non-compliance notices to 15 cryptocurrency platforms, which could face access blocks in the country. The FIU claims that these platforms failed to comply with several provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The notified entities include Weex, Blofin, Bitunix, DigiFinex, Toobit, Razorex, XT.com, Latoken, WOO X, Pionex, ChangeNow, SimpleSwap, FixedFloat, WhiteBIT, and Guardarian. The FIU has directed them to take down their applications and URLs in the country.
India expanded its anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism framework in 2023, bringing Virtual Digital Asset Service Providers (VDA SPs) under the ambit of FIU registration and PMLA obligations. Companies registered as reporting entities with the FIU must report transactions and keep detailed records, regardless of their physical presence in the country.
The agency stated that these obligations are activity-based, not contingent on the platform's physical presence in India. Several cryptocurrency platforms have previously restricted operations in India for failing to comply with regulatory requirements.