India has stepped up its crackdown on offshore crypto exchanges operating without local registrations, asking Apple to remove the apps of platforms including Binance from its App Store in the country.
Bitfinex, HTX and Kucoin are among eight exchanges whose apps are no longer available on the App Store in India. They were removed on orders from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified.
The move marks a significant escalation of India’s crackdown on offshore crypto platforms, which started on Dec 28 when authorities notified nine exchanges that they were suspected of misconduct.
Indian crypto traders had already began moving deposits to local exchanges that abide by the country’s regulations, fearful of losing access to their funds.
Authorities also asked Google to remove the apps. The Google Play Store for Android device users in India still featured the exchange apps that were taken off the App Store as of 2pm local time on Wednesday. Apple, Google and the Indian technology ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) issued so-called compliance show-cause notices to the nine offshore platforms on Dec 28 and also asked the information ministry to block the URLs of the entities. The FIU said the exchanges were operating illegally in India without complying with anti-money laundering laws. However, the websites are still accessible from India.
Of the exchanges singled out in that announcement, only Bitstamp was still available to download on the local App Store on Wednesday. Of the two versions that US-based Kraken offers, only the Pro version was available. Binance, Bitfinex, KuCoin, Bitstamp and Kraken did not respond to requests for comment. HTX, formerly known as Huobi, said it has no operations in India.
The Delhi government last year imposed anti-money-laundering provisions on the crypto sector as it tightened oversight of digital assets along with other countries. In 2022, authorities delivered a major blow to local crypto exchanges by introducing a tax on transactions that caused trading volumes to plummet.
Local exchanges had complained that the 1% levy drove Indian crypto traders to offshore platforms that did not impose it, further hurting their revenues. CoinDCX chief executive officer Sumit Gupta in October estimated that 95% of trading volume had moved to offshore venues.