According to a report by CoinDesk, a few days after the Indian government issued compliance notices to nine entities, Apple has removed the applications of Binance, KuCoin, and other cryptocurrency exchanges from its Indian App Store.
As reported by Zombit earlier, the Financial Intelligence Unit of India (FIU-IND) issued compliance notices to nine offshore cryptocurrency exchanges in December 2023, and requested the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to block their websites. The named exchanges include Binance, KuCoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, and Bitfinex. The FIU stated in a statement that these exchanges have not complied with the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Act and are operating illegally.
The well-known offshore cryptocurrency exchange OKX has also been removed from the Indian App Store, despite not receiving a notice from the FIU. According to TechCrunch, Bitstamp was named by the FIU but has not been removed from the Indian App Store.
An insider revealed to CoinDesk that this process requires a significant amount of paperwork and is still ongoing, which is why the websites of these exchanges are still operational in India. The insider also mentioned that the Indian government may be waiting for responses from these entities before taking further action.
It is reported that the applications of these exchanges are still available on the Google Play Store.
