The global crypto industry witnessed a mix of both concerning and hopeful action over the past few months. The world’s biggest crypto exchange, Binance’s CEO resigned over US money laundering charges, on the other hand, the market is anticipating a potential approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) for the US SEC. However, India seems to moving ahead with a rights approach to counter these kinds of situations.
India’s regulatory approach
As per reports, 28 Virtual Digital Assets (VDA) service providers, including exchanges like WazirX, CoinDCX, and Coinswitch successfully registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND). This move comes after the Indian Finance Ministry’s March declaration which stated that entities involved in Virtual Digital Assets, crypto exchanges, and intermediaries would be classified as “reporting entities” under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
However, crypto exchanges and intermediaries dealing with Virtual Digital Assets were asked to conduct Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures for their clients and platform users.
Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary reportedly stated that “The guidelines and reporting requirements apply to offshore crypto exchanges servicing the Indian Market. The process of registration for the said VDA service providers has been initiated.”
Top crypto exchanges agree to comply
Pankaj Chaudhary assured that in cases of non-compliance by offshore platforms appropriate action under PMLA would be initiated. He added that 28 different entities have completed the registration process to provide services related to Virtual Digital Assets. This included Neblio Technologies Pvt Ltd, the operator of the trading platform Coin DCX, Zanmai Labs Pvt Ltd (WazirX), Bitcipher Labs LLP (Coinswitch), Nextgendev Solutions Pvt Ltd (CoinswitchX), and Awlencan Innovations India Ltd (Zebpay).
The report mentioned that entities are obligated to maintain KYC details, along with records of documents confirming the identity of their clients and beneficial owners under anti-money laundering laws. It added that it is required to keep track of account files and business correspondence related to their clients.
