Apple has removed three offshore crypto exchanges such as Binance, Kucoin and OKX from its App Store in India. This comes after a show-cause notice was sent to nine such virtual digital asset (VDAs) service-providers by the finance ministry late last month. On December 28, 2023, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) issued showcause notices to nine crypto VDAs for not complying with the country’s money laundering laws.
The show-cause notice was sent to Binance, Kucoin, Houbi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, and Bitfinex for operating illegally in India by not registering and following local tax rules.The finance ministry had directed the information technology ministry to block the URLs of these exchanges.
As of now, these apps continue to show on Google’s Play Store. It is very likely that they will be removed from Google Play Store as well.
What Meity statement said on blocking of urlsIn a statement issued, the finance ministry said that offshore and onshore Virtual Digital Asset service providers operating in India and involved in activities including exchange between virtual digital assets and fiat currencies, transfer and administration of virtual digital assets or instruments enabling control over them must register with Financial Intelligence Unit-India and comply with the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
For those unaware, Financial Intelligence Unit-India is the national agency responsible for receiving, analysing, and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions to enforcement agencies and its foreign counterparts.