Amidst a recent regulatory shift that lifted the ban on all cryptocurrency transactions in Nigeria, India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is set to ban 9 crypto platforms.

It is no longer news that the Central Bank of Nigeria on December 22, 2023, raised the ban on cryptocurrency transactions after issuing operational guidelines on Virtual Assets Service Providers (VASPs) to all banks and other financial institutions (OFIs). This is a major milestone for Nigerians because the government is now receptive to virtual assets, making major moves to strike a balance between innovation and crypto risk mitigation.

Other countries around the world have also been making active steps in creating an environment receptive to the adoption of cryptocurrencies. However, the process is not smooth in some regions. Due to non-compliance with the country’s money laundering prevention legislation, India is set to ban nine crypto exchanges including Binance, Kucoin, and Kraken.

In March of 2023, the crypto industry of India achieved a landmark as the country instituted a mandate for crypto firms to implement know-your-customer (KYC) data. In addition, the country mandated all crypto firms to be registered by the FIU and adhere to the money laundering prevention controls. Although 31 firms are reported to have fully registered used FIU, many crypto platforms are yet to comply.

Consequent to this non-compliance, the FIU issued “show cause notices” to the nine firms namely Binance, Kraken, Huobi, Kucoin, Bittrex, Gate.io, Bitstamp, Bitfinix, and MEXC Global. These VASPs will be forwarded to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block their respective URLs.

Final thoughts

Despite the efforts of various countries to integrate virtual assets into their economies, many crypto firms are non-compliant with the established regulations. This begs the question of whether crypto firms are unnecessarily uncooperative with the governments or if the regulations are too strict for the firms to follow. Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Image source: ANI