Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has registered with India’s virtual digital asset (VDA) monitoring agency FIU-IND after paying a penalty of Rs 18.82 crore, lifting a seven-month ban on its website and mobile application in India.
Binance registration with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND) marks its 19th global regulatory milestone, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
“Recognising the vitality and potential of the Indian VDA market, this alignment with Indian regulations allows us to tailor our services for Indian users,” said Richard Teng, chief executive of Binance. “It is a privilege to extend the reach of our cutting-edge platform to this thriving market, supporting India’s continued VDA evolution.”
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India leads the world in grassroots crypto adoption, according to Chainalysis’ 2023 Global Crypto Adoption Index, Binance said. The country ranked in the top five by estimated transaction volume across centralized and decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, and token smart contracts.
Back in June, FIU-IND had imposed a penalty of Rs 18.82 crore on Binance, citing non-compliance with the country’s anti-money laundering law.
This is the highest penalty imposed by India on a crypto entity so far.
In December 2023, the intelligence unit of the finance ministry, which is tasked with supervision of trade in VDAs, had issued notices to Binance and eight other global crypto exchanges, warning that their operations had not been in compliance with local laws and seeking their response. In January, they were banned from operating in India through web addresses and mobile applications.
Based on the material available on record and after considering the written and oral submissions of Binance, the FIU-IND director found that the charges against Binance were substantiated, the agency said in a notice dated June 19. The penalty was imposed under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, it said.
Another offshore exchange KuCoin paid a penalty of Rs 35.5 lakh earlier this year for past non-compliances, FIU-IND said last month. Among other crypto entities, Bitstamp and OKX have wrapped up operations in India, while Gate.io and Kraken are still in conversations with the FIU. The remaining have not responded to the notices.
ET reported in April that Binance was poised to return to the country by paying a penalty of about $2 million (about Rs 16.7 crore at current exchange rates).
Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange in terms of both asset holdings and daily trade volume. According to CoinMarketCap, it recorded a trade volume of $11 billion in the 24 hours till noon Thursday, which was 25% of the global volume.
Before it was banned in January this year, Binance accounted for nearly 90% of the estimated $4 billion crypto holdings of Indian nationals.
