India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND) issued non-compliance notices to 15 cryptocurrency service providers for failing to follow anti-money laundering rules and requested that public access to their apps and websites be blocked.

Cryptoslate reported on Sept. 10 that FIU-IND sent non-compliance notices under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to 15 virtual digital asset service providers (VDA SP), including Weex, Blofin, Bitunix, DigiFinex, Toobit, XT.com, WOO X, Pionex and WhiteBIT. India’s official announcement also included Rezorex, Latoken, ChangeNow, SimpleSwap, Fixedfloat and Guardarian.

FIU-IND also issued blocking notices to prevent public access in India to the firms’ apps and URLs, citing the Information Technology Act and related intermediary rules. It has not been confirmed that all apps and sites have actually been blocked. The official announcement did not say customer accounts, balances or withdrawals were frozen. Restricted public access could create inconvenience for login or withdrawal routes, but this action alone does not mean customer funds were lost.

India included crypto businesses in its anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework in March 2023. In India, businesses providing services such as exchanging crypto and fiat currency, transferring assets, and custody or management must register with FIU-IND as reporting entities and follow related obligations such as transaction reporting and record-keeping. Even if they are foreign entities or have no office in India, they are subject to regulation if they provide services to local users.

The announcement did not include a common deadline for the companies to fix compliance issues or withdrawal guidance for existing users. In December 2023, FIU-IND also issued non-compliance notices to nine overseas operators including Binance, Kucoin and Kraken and requested that their URLs be blocked.

As a result, the actual impact on users is expected to vary depending on whether app stores and internet service providers enforce blocks, and whether each company registers with FIU-IND and complies with regulations.