The key mobile application belonging to Bybit, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange, has been eradicated from the Apple App Store in India today. This incident occurs amid rising regulatory pressures within the Indian cryptocurrency domain, signaling ongoing challenges faced by Bybit and other international cryptocurrency platforms within the country.

The sudden vanishing of Bybit exchange’s central mobile application from the Apple App Store has stirred curiosity and concern among cryptocurrency investors in India. Despite the lack of a disclosed reason for this removal, numerous individuals associate it with the escalating regulatory ambiguity enveloping cryptocurrency activities in India.

Pushpendra Singh, a co-founder of Smart View AI, shared insights on this matter through his personal social media account on platform X, suggesting that the Apple App Store's elimination of Bybit's primary mobile app for the iOS platform in India likely stems from the current regulatory uncertainties within the nation. Nevertheless, the Bybit main mobile app is still accessible for downloading on the Google Play Store for Android users in India.

Up to this point, users who have previously downloaded the app onto their iOS or Android devices have not encountered any notable issues. Furthermore, access to Bybit exchange’s website remains unimpeded from India. Despite the removal of Bybit’s primary mobile application from the App Store, the Bybit Pro app, facilitating leveraged transactions, remains accessible for users in the App Store.

The expulsion of Bybit’s primary app from the App Store represents a significant event amidst the prevailing regulatory apprehensions in India. This move triggers speculation concerning the possibility of additional regulatory actions directed at other cryptocurrency exchanges operating within the country, such as OKX, which is currently preparing to halt its operations in India.

Users have reported facing difficulties when attempting to access different cryptocurrency exchanges in India, including Binance, KuCoin, Gate.io, and OKX.

India Targets Global Cryptocurrency Exchanges

As of late, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) initiated actions against international cryptocurrency exchanges functioning in India towards the end of December 2023. A notification was released indicating that access restrictions would be imposed on exchanges like Binance, Gate.io, KuCoin, and Huobi.

These notifications highlighted alleged illicit activities conducted via global cryptocurrency exchanges in India, pointing towards purported violations of the 2002 Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Assessments conducted under the Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT) framework, alongside calls to block access to cryptocurrency exchange websites, have fostered interpretations that the government has initiated efforts to regulate the cryptocurrency world, citing concerns regarding money laundering and terrorism financing.