Indian Crypto Exchanges in Crisis: Binance Blacklisted Amid Government Crackdown
Recent turmoil has gripped Indian cryptocurrency exchanges following the blacklisting of Binance, among other prominent offshore platforms, by the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance in India. The move, aimed at penalizing these exchanges for violating anti-money laundering regulations, has sent shockwaves through the crypto community.
On December 28, the Ministry of Finance’s Financial Intelligence Unit added the URLs of nine offshore crypto exchanges, including Binance, Kraken, Huobi, Kucoin, Bittrex, Gate.io, Bitstamp, Bitfinex, and MEXC Global, to its blacklist. This has prompted emergency meetings among major Indian crypto exchanges, as these platforms heavily rely on Binance’s order book. Any disruption to Binance’s application programming interface (API) or the blocking of its website could have severe repercussions for Indian exchanges.
Pushpendra Singh, a prominent Indian YouTuber, highlighted the close ties between Indian exchanges and Binance, emphasizing that many rely on Binance’s liquidity. The potential unavailability of Binance’s API or website could lead to operational challenges for Indian crypto exchanges.
During these emergency meetings, industry insiders are likely discussing contingency plans, including potential workarounds to bypass the blockade or exploring alternative APIs from organizations not under government scrutiny.
