Threat of ban looms over offshore crypto platforms as govt weighs in

The government could take further action, including a possible ban, on the Indian operations of offshore cryptocurrency dealing apps such as Binance if these platforms are found guilty under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, a senior official said.

“The action so far has been on reports and show-cause notices issued to these (digital) wallets by the finance ministry,” a senior official from the electronics and information technology ministry told ET on Thursday on condition of anonymity. “A more extensive probe, however, is underway. If they are found guilty of violating more provisions of the money laundering law, we will impose a complete ban on their Indian operations.”

On Wednesday, the ministry had asked Apple to remove Binance and other similar offshore cryptocurrency apps from its store. The action was based on a report of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the finance ministry, another official said.


“The notices to internet intermediaries are sent through the IT ministry as we are the nodal ministry. In case there are further recommendations and suggestions from the finance ministry on the issue, we will act on them,” one of the officials said.

On December 28, the FIU had sent notices to Binance and eight other virtual digital asset wallet providers, asking them to explain their operations in India without relevant permissions and for not following the laws preventing money laundering. The FIU had also recommended to the electronics and IT ministry to block access to the uniform resource locator (URL) of these platforms.