The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Government of India has sent notices to nine offshore Virtual Digital Assets Service Providers (VDA SPs), asking for compliance with regulations.
In March 2023, Virtual Digital Assets Service Providers (VDA SPs) were brought under the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT) framework through the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PML) Act, 2002.
The Director of FIU has urged the Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block the URLs of these non-compliant entities operating in India, as they are not adhering to the PML Act.
These nine entities—Binance, Kucoin, MEXC Global, Huobi, Bittrex, Kraken, Gate.io, Bitstamp, and Bitfinex—are in violation of regulations outlined in a statement released on December 28 by the finance ministry. This statement emphasises that both offshore and onshore Virtual Digital Asset service providers conducting activities such as virtual digital asset-fiat currency exchange, managing and transferring virtual digital assets, or enabling control over them must register with Financial Intelligence Unit-India and comply with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The FIU-India serves as the national agency responsible for receiving, scrutinising, and sharing information concerning suspicious financial transactions with enforcement agencies and their foreign counterparts.
