FIU-IND issues PMLA notices to 15 offshore crypto platforms and seeks blocking of their apps and sites

The Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND), under the Ministry of Finance, has issued notices for non-compliance to fifteen virtual digital asset service providers under Section 13 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. They include Weex, Blofin, Bitunix, DigiFinex, Toobit, XT.com, Latoken, WOO X, Pionex, ChangeNow, SimpleSwap, FixedFloat, WhiteBIT and Guardarian. The Director of FIU-IND, acting as the nodal officer under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, read with rule 3(1)(d) of the Intermediary Guidelines, also issued notices seeking takedown of these entities' apps and URLs, which were found operating illegally in India without complying with the PMLA. Virtual digital asset service providers were brought within India's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework under the PMLA in March 2023.

Any provider serving India, whether offshore or onshore, that exchanges virtual digital assets and fiat currency, transfers them, or keeps or administers them, must register with FIU-IND as a reporting entity. It must then meet the Act's reporting, record-keeping and other obligations. FIU-IND stressed that these obligations depend on the activity, not on physical presence in India. The release also cautioned the public that crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky, and that there may be no regulatory recourse for losses.