In response to the Ministry of Finance's Financial Intelligence Unit's ban on offshore crypto exchanges such as Binance and OKX, Indian crypto exchanges are assuring users of seamless transfers for those looking to move their crypto assets. Now people are very confused. Is Binance safe or not?
Various Indian crypto exchanges are offering attractive fee waiver incentives to aid users with funds stranded on the banned foreign exchanges. CoinDCX, among the leading Indian crypto exchanges in terms of trading volume, has disclosed a commitment of $1 million to facilitate the transfer of assets to compliant crypto exchanges.
Subsequently, BuyUcoin, another notable Indian crypto exchange, declared a zero-fee policy for users transferring from offshore exchanges following the FIU ban. Shivam Thakral, the CEO of BuyUcoin, expressed that they view the FIU's decision as a positive measure for safeguarding investors and upholding regulations pertaining to capital flight in the context of foreign exchange entities.
WazirX, another leading exchange, introduced a 1% bonus for users shifting their crypto assets to WazirX. Consequently, they have observed a significant surge in activity, with a 42.3% increase in P2P transactions, a 253% rise in spot trading volume, and a 114% uptick in deposits from November to January compared to the preceding three months.
In a decisive move, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a branch of the Indian Finance Ministry, issued a non-compliance notice to several prominent crypto exchanges, including Binance, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, KuCoin, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, Bittrex, and Bitfinex, on December 28, 2023. The FIU mandated a one-week timeframe for these exchanges to respond to the notice and directed the IT department to block the URLs of the mentioned foreign crypto exchanges if they failed to comply.
Around two weeks after the FIU's notice, on January 10, Apple's Indian app store took the preemptive step of blocking all foreign crypto exchanges. However, during this period, the apps were still accessible on the Android app store. Within a week, Google's app store also followed suit, blocking these foreign crypto exchanges. This development triggered a sense of panic among Indian users who had turned to foreign exchanges like Binance to avoid a hefty 30% crypto tax.
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