The Indian government has issued a show-cause notice to nine popular offshore cryptocurrency service providers under local anti-money laundering laws, it was announced on Thursday.
The Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU IND) said it has written to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in the country to block the URLs of the nine entities it states are “operating illegally without complying with the provisions of PML Act in India.”
The cryptocurrency exchanges on the notices are Binance, Kraken, Bitfinex, Kucoin, Huobi, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, and MEXC Global. Many of the exchanges are highly ranked when it comes to crypto trading volume.
“Director FIU IND has written to Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block the URLs of said entities that are operating illegally without complying with the provisions of the PML Act in India,” reads the notice.
Cryptocurrency providers, or “Virtual Digital Asset Service Providers (VDA SPs),” can operate in India. However, conducting activities such as exchanges between virtual digital assets and fiat currencies and the transfer of virtual digital assets means the companies must be registered with the FIU IND and comply with the regulations set under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002.
According to the FIU IND, 31 cryptocurrency exchanges have registered, but they note that several offshore entities are not registered despite catering to a substantial number of Indian users.