New Delhi: The Finance Ministry has taken action against nine offshore Virtual Digital Assets (VDA) service providers involved in crypto assets, urging the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) to block their websites. These platforms, including Binance, Kucoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, and Bitfinex, are allegedly operating illegally, failing to comply with the Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) Act provisions.
The move follows the inclusion of VDA service providers in the Anti Money Laundering/Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT) framework under the PML Act, 2002, in March 2023.
The Finance Ministry stated, “Director FIU IND (Financial Intelligence Unit-India) has written to the Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, to block the URLs of these entities. They are operating illegally without complying with the PML Act provisions in India.”
The FIU-IND is responsible for processing information related to suspect financial transactions. Both offshore and onshore VDA service providers operating in India must register with FIU IND as Reporting Entities, engaging in activities like VDA-to-fiat exchanges, VDA transfers, and safekeeping or administration of VDAs. These entities are obligated to comply with PML Act requirements, regardless of their physical presence in India.
The Finance Ministry noted, “Till date, 31 VDA SPs have registered with FIU IND. However, several offshore entities catering to a substantial part of Indian users were not registering and coming under the AML/CFT framework.”
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