Following the FIU ban on offshore cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, OKX, and others, Several Indian cryptocurrency exchanges guarantee trouble-free transfers for users who wish to transfer their crypto assets from foreign cryptocurrency exchanges.
Several Indian cryptocurrency exchanges have devised enticing fee abatement offers for users whose funds are stranded on prohibited foreign cryptocurrency exchanges.
Initially, CoinDCX, a prominent Indian cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume, disclosed its allocation of $1 million towards facilitating users’ transfers of assets to complaint cryptocurrency exchanges.
Subsequently, in response to the FIU prohibition, another Indian cryptocurrency exchange, BuyUcoin, declared fee-free transfers for users conducting offshore transactions.
In addition to enforcing capital flight regulations and rules on foreign exchange entities, an exchange spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the organization views FIU’s action as a proper measure to protect investors.
On December 28, 2023, the FIU, an entity under the purview of the Indian Finance Ministry, issued a notice of non-compliance to Bitfinex, Binance, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, KuCoin, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, and Huobi for their unlawful operations within India.
The FIU provided crypto exchanges with a one-week deadline to respond to the notice and instructed the IT department to disable the URLs of the foreign exchanges in question should they fail to comply.
Apple’s Indian app store barred all foreign cryptocurrency exchanges on January 10, nearly two weeks after the FIU notice; however, the app remained available on the Android app store.
Google’s app store blocked access to these foreign cryptocurrency exchanges within a week. As a result, Indian users flocked to foreign cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance to circumvent a hefty 30% cryptocurrency tax. This caused widespread panic.
Numerous Indian crypto influencers were observed endorsing virtual private networks (VPNs) as alternatives for users to access the prohibited platforms in India.
However, exchange platforms such as BuyUcoin cautioned against such actions, stating that “Indian users accessing new URLs risk losing all of their crypto assets or money to phishing sites and other online scams,” among other dire consequences.
To comply with local regulations, the OKX exchange reportedly began requesting Indian users to update their personal information, which is consistent with the list of prohibited foreign cryptocurrency exchanges and suggests a move toward FIU compliance.
