Binance Website is Back in India, Securing Full Registration

• Binance reopened its Indian platform after paying the Financial Intelligence Unit – India (FIU-IND) a penalty of over $2M.
• The FIU issued a notice to nine crypto exchanges operating in India, including Binance, OKX, Kraken, and Huobi.
• Despite India facing complexities with cryptocurrency regulations, Binance’s re-entry sparks light for investors.

In a major turn of events in the cryptocurrency industry, Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has reopened its website to Indian investors.  On August 13th, traders accessed Binance’s fully operational website. The exchange got its nod after paying a penalty fee of over $2 million to the Financial Intelligence Unit – India (FIU-IND). Following the Seychelles-based exchange KuCoin, Binance got its registration under FIU-IND after the ban.

Under Section 13 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), FIU-IND sent a show-cause notice to nine overseas cryptocurrency exchanges operating in India for “illegal operations.” In December 2023, firms such as OKX, Binance, KuCoin, Kraken, Huobi, etc., received their notices to ban the operations. 

Although Binance hinted at making a comeback in April, the crypto giant’s registration process took a while. After the completion of its remuneration, the ministry stated that the newly revamped website would now be identified as an entity registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit. Apart from PMLA, Binance is subject to compliance with the Virtual Digital Assets (VDA) taxation framework. 

Earlier in March this year, KuCoin revoked the ban on its website after paying the Financial Intelligence Unit—India a fine of over 35 Lakhs INR for non-compliance with Indian law. This effect identified the crypto exchange as the first firm to comply entirely with the Indian guidelines.

The re-entry of Binance has delighted many investors who have been investing in Indian exchanges following the ban. Although the Indian government had complexities with cryptocurrency regulations, unblocking Binance’s website indicates its stand to strengthen blockchain technology. Despite several challenges, Binance promised to build a dedicated team to improve the blockchain system in India.