The CEO of CoinSwitch also wanted to make it clear that the “engagement with the ED” is not about money laundering.
The CEO of the Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch Kuber, Ashish Singhal, said on Saturday, two days after the financial crimes agency Enforcement Directorate searched five locations, “We are fully cooperating with them.”
Thursday, the Bangalore office of India’s Enforcement Directorate said, “Searches were done because we did not get the cooperation we wanted from CoinSwitch Kuber.”
Two days later, the CEO of the exchange went on Twitter to explain that the “engagement with the ED” is not about money laundering or India’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act. In a previous report, it said that the searches were related to India’s Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). Singhal did not say in his Twitter post why the searches were done.
When asked for more information, CoinSwitch didn’t answer right away.
“Cryptos are not yet clearly categorized in most parts of the world,” Singhal wrote on Twitter to explain the position of his crypto platform. “In India and other places, the law is still trying to figure out if crypto is a “good,” “security,” “currency,” or something else. This is still being worked on. CoinSwitch Kuber wants to build a responsible cryptocurrency ecosystem that helps the Indian economy.”
Singhal pointed to Australia, where “token mapping” is being done to figure out how to classify crypto, and the United States, where “there is an ongoing debate about whether some crypto are considered commodities or securities.”
When asked for comment, India’s Enforcement Directorate did not respond right away.
India hasn’t passed any crypto laws yet, but it has put in place high taxes that have caused uproar in the industry and more.
