Ban on crypto exchange Binance may be lifted, FIU director hints

The government's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) India may soon lift the ban on global crypto exchange Binance. A top official has confirmed this. FIU investigates cases related to suspicious financial transactions such as money laundering and terrorism funding. Last March, FIU-India lifted the ban on foreign crypto exchange QCoin after imposing a fine of Rs 34.5 lakh.

According to Vivek Aggarwal, Director of FIU and Additional Secretary of the Revenue Department, the process of action against Binance is ongoing and the decision on the penalty is yet to be taken. He said that after the crypto exchange is registered with the FIU, it will be able to operate once the compliance proceedings are completed. According to Aggarwal, QCoin and Binance are now registered with the FIU. With this, we will be able to keep a complete eye on the transactions. With this, filing related to STR (Suspicious Transaction Reporting) will start from the crypto exchange.

FIU India sent notifications to nine foreign cryptocurrency exchanges on December 28, 2023, alleging that they were conducting business unlawfully in India. Anti-money laundering regulations in India were allegedly broken by these exchanges. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeIT) was later asked by the FBI to block the URLs of these exchanges in India.

Binance, Huobi, Kraken, Get.io, QCoin, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, Bittrex, and Bitfinex were among the cryptocurrency exchanges to which notices were sent at that time. There are presently 46 crypto entities registered in the nation, according to the FIU director. The entire count of these entities will rise to 48 following QCoin and Binance.