India’s Financial Intelligence Unit, FIU-IND, has sent non-compliance notices under Section 13 of the anti-money laundering law to 15 offshore virtual digital asset service providers, saying they offered services to Indian users without registering with the agency. The list includes Weex, Blofin, Rezorex, Bitunix, DigiFinex, Toobit, XT.com, Latoken, WOO X, Pionex, ChangeNow, SimpleSwap, Fixedfloat, WhiteBIT and Guardarian. India brought crypto platforms into an anti-money laundering regime equivalent to that applied to banks in March 2023. Under that framework, any platform serving Indian customers, whether or not it has a physical office in India, must register and comply with customer verification, record-keeping and suspicious transaction reporting requirements. FIU-IND also warned the public that crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and carry very high risk, with losses from such transactions potentially outside the scope of regulatory relief. The move comes after reports that Indian users were converting stablecoins such as USDT into gift cards through platforms in Sweden, Germany and Singapore to buy groceries, fuel and gold in India.
India’s Financial Intelligence Unit, FIU-IND, has issued non-compliance notices under Section 13 of the anti-money laundering law to 15 offshore virtual digital asset service providers, according to ChainCatcher.
Platforms named in the notices
The entities named are Weex, Blofin, Rezorex, Bitunix, DigiFinex, Toobit, XT.com, Latoken, WOO X, Pionex, ChangeNow, SimpleSwap, Fixedfloat, WhiteBIT and Guardarian.
FIU-IND said these platforms were providing services to users in India without registering with the agency.
India’s AML framework for crypto platforms
India brought crypto platforms under an anti-money laundering framework equivalent to that applied to banks in March 2023. Under the rules, any platform serving customers in India must complete registration, regardless of whether it maintains an office in the country.
Registered platforms are required to carry out customer verification, keep records and file suspicious transaction reports.
Public warning and prior enforcement
FIU-IND also warned the public that crypto products and NFTs are not regulated and carry very high risk. It said losses tied to such transactions may not be eligible for regulatory relief.
The action comes after reports that users in India were converting stablecoins including USDT into gift cards through platforms based in Sweden, Germany and Singapore, then using those cards to buy groceries, fuel and gold in India.
FIU-IND had previously issued notices in December 2023 to nine major offshore exchanges including Binance, Kraken and KuCoin. Binance later completed registration and paid a fine of 1.882 billion rupees.
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