India FIU Restricts Binance, OKX Apps

India FIU notified multiple cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance and OKX for operating illegally and required registration.

The government of India filed a noncompliance warning against the cryptocurrency exchange app Binance and OKX, which resulted in the removal of those apps from the Google Play Store in India.

Apple’s App Store in India made a similar decision in December 2023. The India FIU issued a notice on December 28, 2023, to Binance, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, KuCoin, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, Bittrex, and Bitfinex for operating illegally in India.

India FIU gave the notice to the various cryptocurrency exchanges. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) issued a notification requiring every exchange that offers services to users in India to register as a “reporting entity” and provide statements to the Department of Income Tax.

As a result of the exchanges’ failure to comply with the regulations, the India FIU suggested that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MITE) block their websites.

Even though Google’s Play Store has restricted Binance and OKX, the Binance website and application are still accessible and operational for users who have already signed up for them.

The South Asian division of Binance stated in a post on X (which was formerly known as Twitter) that it is aware of the app blocking in India and that it has guaranteed users that their accounts and payments are secure.

After India implemented a 30% tax on cryptocurrency and a 1% tax deduction at source for every cryptocurrency trade, the traffic on cryptocurrency exchanges plummeted, and Indian customers hurried toward foreign cryptocurrency exchanges to dodge the high tax system.

In March 2022, the Indian Finance Bill 2022 was passed by the parliament, which resulted in the modification of tax legislation and the establishment of a rate of thirty percent on cryptocurrency holdings and transfers.

Furthermore, traders cannot deduct losses from earnings, and each trading pair’s tax calculations are handled independently.