Crypto exchange OKX is ceasing services for users in India, it said in an email to customers Thursday, advising them to withdraw their funds by April-end.
The move follows Apple and Google pulling the eponymous app of OKX in the country after an Indian government agency said many crypto exchanges were operating illegally in the South Asian market.
Financial Intelligence Unit, the government agency, named Binance, Kraken, Huobi and Gate.io among apps operating “illegally” in India but hadn’t named OKX in its public statement.
OKX has advised customers in India to close all their active margin positions and withdraw all funds by April 30.
While India-based crypto exchanges continued to require rigorous know-your-customer verifications before onboarding new users, the same hasn’t been true of many global platforms.
Google has pulled many crypto exchanges, including Binance and Kraken, from its Play Store in India, the latest blow to already dwindling India’s crypto exchange already dwindling India’s crypto exchange.
Apple pulled the apps earlier this week pulled the apps earlier this week and on Thursday evening ISPs in India began blocking the URLs of the crypto exchange websites.
This only impacts users who attempt to access the Indian iOS app store or the Binance website from India,” Binance said earlier Friday.
On Tuesday, CoinDCX announced that it would provide rewards to customers who transfer their crypto assets from global exchanges to its India-based platform.
Coinbase, another popular global crypto exchange, stopped onboarding new customers in India last year.
Financial Intelligence Unit, an Indian government agency which scrutinizes financial transactions, said Thursday nine global crypto exchanges — including Binance, Kraken, Kucoin and Mexc — are operating “illegally” in the country without complying with the local anti-money laundering act and asked the IT Ministry to block their websites.
Global crypto exchanges are required to comply with India’s anti-money laundering rules and cannot evade the guidelines just because they don’t have physical presence in the country, the government agency said.
Cryptocurrencies were brought into the ambit of anti-money laundering / counter financing of terrorism framework in India in March this year.
India began taxing virtual currencies last year, levying a 30% tax on the gains and a 1% deduction on each crypto transaction.
“Most Indian crypto exchanges are FIU registered entities and adhere with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
