Binance resumes services in India after seven-month regulatory halt

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has resumed operations for users in India after a seven-month hiatus imposed by local authorities for “illegal” operations in the country.

Stock market he said On Thursday, the corporate registered as a reporting entity with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a government agency that oversees financial transactions.

India blocked nearly a dozen offshore cryptocurrency exchange services, including Binance, Kraken, Kucoin and Mexc, late last 12 months on the advice of the FIU. The FIU said offshore exchanges must register locally to comply with the country’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing framework.

The FIU’s decision comes after a gaggle of local cryptocurrency exchanges filed a grievance with the Indian Finance Ministry, alleging that they were losing customers to non-compliant foreign cryptocurrency exchanges.

Binance’s website and mobile apps are back online in India. Binance said in an announcement that compliance with the Indian regulator marks the nineteenth regulatory milestone for the corporate.

“Our registration with FIU-IND marks an important milestone in Binance’s history,” Richard Teng, CEO of Binance, said in an announcement.

“Recognizing the vitality and potential of the Indian VDA market, aligning with Indian regulations allows us to tailor our services to the needs of Indian users. It is a privilege to extend the reach of our cutting-edge platform to this growing market, supporting the continued evolution of VDA in India.”

Despite India’s status as a key offshore destination for global tech giants, its cryptocurrency market stays relatively underdeveloped. Over the past five years, the Reserve Bank of India has been putting significant pressure on banks to distance themselves from cryptocurrency firms, while the federal government’s implementation of strict tax rules has significantly dampened local enthusiasm for digital assets.

Coinbase stopped accepting customers from India in 2023 after the corporate faced what it described as informal pressure from India’s central bank.

These regulatory and financial hurdles have effectively hindered the expansion of the Indian cryptocurrency ecosystem. The recent hack of WazirX, an area exchange and estranged Binance partner, where nearly half of its reserves were lost, was one other major blow to the efforts of local entrepreneurs who had been advocating for a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment in the country.