India cracks down on 25 crypto exchanges including BingX, LBank, CoinW over compliance failures

In a decisive move against non-compliance, the Indian government is taking action against 25 offshore cryptocurrency exchanges, including notable names like BingX, LBank, and CoinW. This crackdown, led by the Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU-IND), stems from the exchanges' failure to register and adhere to anti-money laundering regulations. The finance ministry disclosed that these exchanges have been issued notices for their non-compliance with the country’s financial laws. As part of this enforcement, the regulator has instructed these platforms to remove their applications and websites from Indian access. Despite this directive, many of these exchanges were still operational within India at the time of reporting. Collectively, the 25 targeted exchanges manage over $9 billion in assets and have achieved a staggering trading volume of approximately $20 billion within the last 24 hours, as reported by CoinMarketCap. Notably, firms like BingX, LBank, and CoinW have not yet commented on the situation. Although India lacks a specific regulatory framework for cryptocurrency, a notification from the finance ministry in March 2023 mandated that all virtual asset service providers comply with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002. Consequently, this legislation requires crypto exchanges catering to Indian customers to register with the FIU-IND and meet its compliance standards. So far, at least 50 crypto exchanges have registered with India's anti-money laundering authority. The FIU-IND has previously acted against major platforms including Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin, and OKX. While OKX exited the Indian market last year, Binance and Coinbase have recently resumed operations after registering with the FIU, with Binance restarting in August 2024 and Coinbase's early-access program for Indian users launching earlier this year, although full services remain unavailable.