OKX, the cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it will cease operations in India.
This decision is due to the difficulties experienced by all foreign crypto exchanges due to the new rules introduced earlier by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Indian Ministry of Finance. At that time, the FIU issued a prohibition notice to nine prominent crypto exchanges under Section 13 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, according to CoinGape.
Subsequently, the websites of the crypto exchanges were blocked. The blacklisted cryptocurrency exchange websites included: Binance, Kucoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, and Bitfinex. Their apps have also since disappeared from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Despite being the leaders in cryptocurrency trading volume, these exchanges were not authorized to operate in India, the agency said.
The FIU took action and banned the offshore exchanges from operating in the country without registration and providing crypto services to Indian users. The FIU highlighted the inability of these companies to meet their reporting obligations to the country's government.
On March 21, crypto exchange OKX sent notices to its clients in India to discontinue services and asked them to withdraw funds from their accounts by April 30. The exchange cited regulatory hurdles from the local regulator as the reason for the closure.
"We regret to inform you that OKX is no longer providing services to users in India," the exchange said.
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OKX's Indian clients must close out their margin positions, contracts, futures, and options. They must also withdraw funds from Grow products (Earn, Loan, and Jumpstart) by 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on April 30.
The OKX exchange has assured users that their funds will remain safe and can be easily withdrawn until this deadline, but users are advised to expedite their withdrawals.
Following the tightened regulatory requirements, OKX applied for a new Know Your Customer (KYC) registration process but did not receive a positive registration result.
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