India Probes ‘Several’ Crypto Money Laundering Cases, Seizes Over $115M

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India’s Enforcement Directorate is investigating “several” crypto cases for money-laundering schemes and has seized $115.5 million in such crimes to date, the finance ministry said, the latest in a series of government crackdowns on the burgeoning space already underway to shake. from the violent market conditions.

India’s crime-fighting agency has also arrested five individuals in cryptocurrency crimes and earlier issued a warning notice to local exchange WazirX and its directors for crypto transactions of over $338 million, the ministry said.

The revelation comes at a time when India is pushing for rules to better scrutinize the activities of cryptocurrency firms, although New Delhi has so far resisted formulating a blanket law to regulate virtual digital assets.

Last week, the Ministry of Finance (PDF) said that crypto will be governed by anti-money laundering rules in the South Asian market. Under the new change, crypto exchanges, NFT providers and custodial wallet operators will be responsible for monitoring suspicious financial activities.

Businesses operating in the crypto space will be required to perform Know Your Customer Verifications. “Exchanges and wallet providers will be required to implement AML/CFT controls, and to be licensed or registered and monitored or supervised by national authorities,” the Treasury said this week.

India, in its ongoing G20 presidency, has also said it will prioritize the development of a framework for global regulation of unbacked crypto-assets, stablecoins and decentralized finance.

Last year, New Delhi took a strict approach to cryptocurrencies by charging a 30% tax on all gains and a 1% deduction on every crypto transaction. The nation’s move, along with the market downturn, has severely depleted the transactions that local exchanges CoinSwitch Kuber, backed by Sequoia India and Andreessen Horowitz, and CoinDCX, backed by Pantera, process in the nation.

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, founder and CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, told TechCrunch last year that the firm does not see India as a “very crypto-friendly environment.” He said the firm tries to pass on its concerns to the local authority about local taxation, but claimed that tax policy usually takes a long time to change.