India to Block Nine Crypto Exchanges, Including Binance, HTX

India's Financial Intelligence Unit wants the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block the URLs of nine crypto exchanges.

The move will block Binance, Kraken, HTX, Kucoin, Bittrex, Gate.io, Bitstamp, Bitfinex and MEXC Global after claiming that the virtual asset service providers (VASP) were "operating illegally" and did not comply with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. 

India has been working to align crypto with its traditional finance sector, having mandated in March that crypto companies must collect know-your-customer (KYC) information. At the same time, it also mandated that crypto firms register with the FIU.

Any VASP with Indian operations — whether they’re on or offshore — must register with the Financial Intelligence Unit as a reporting entity and abide by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. 

While there are currently 31 entities registered with the FIU, "several offshore entities, though catering to a substantial part of Indian users, were not getting registered and coming under the Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT) framework."

The FIU issued "show cause notices" to the nine blocked VASPs, a press release said. It's unclear what ramifications, other than the blocking of the URLs, that the companies face for failing to register.

(Source: Blockworks)