By Jaspreet Kalra
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has registered with India's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a senior FIU official said on Friday, as the exchange seeks to resume operations in the country.
The exchange was banned from operating in India in December for failing to comply with local regulations as part of the financial regulator's crackdown on offshore crypto exchanges operating in the country without registration.
India requires virtual digital asset service providers such as crypto exchanges to be registered with the FIU as a reporting entity and comply with obligations arising from the country's anti-money laundering regulations.
Although Binance has registered with the FIU, it can only resume operations after paying a penalty for previous violations, which has yet to be determined, said Vivek Aggarwal, director of the FIU.
The FIU had issued notices to nine offshore cryptocurrency exchanges in December 2023 for non-compliance with local regulations.
The financial regulator had also asked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block online access to the stock exchanges.
Offshore crypto exchange KuCoin has also registered with the FIU and resumed operations after paying a fine of 3.45 million rupees ($41,313), Aggarwal said.
Kucoin announced the registration in March but did not provide any details about the penalty.
Binance and KuCoin did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
($1 = 83.5073 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
