Indian Exchange CoinSwitch Accused Of Forex Violations
- CoinSwitch Kuber has been accused of violating forex laws and as a result, the Enforcement Directorate, or ED, conducted searches on the offices of the exchange.
- The authorities have also conducted searches at residences of multiple officials at the az16-backed crypto exchange, which is based in Bengaluru.
Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch Kuber has been accused of violating forex laws and it seems that the local authorities continue to crackdown on local cryptocurrency exchanges. According to reports, the authorities have also conducted searches at multiple premises of the az16-backed crypto exchange, which is based in Bengaluru.
As per the TechCrunch report, four people familiar with the matter told it that the Enforcement Directorate or ED, ‘a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India,’ had searched the office facilities of the crypto exchange.
According to two people familiar with the matter, the residents of the officials of CoinSwitch were also searched including chief executive Ashish Singhal.
“We receive queries from various government agencies. Our approach has always been that of transparency. Crypto is an early stage industry with a lot of potential and we continuously engage with all stakeholders,”
a CoinSwitch Kuber spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement.
The ED believes that the CoinSwitch exchange has acquired shares of over $200 million which is a violation of local forex laws in the South Asian country. When TechCrunch reached out to the executives of the Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia India-backed exchange which is worth $2 billion, they received no reply.
Issue With WazirX
The law enforcement agency has been very viligant as it recently froze the assets of WazirX, another Indian crypto exchange. The ED froze around $8 million from WazirX on similar grounds of violation of foreign exchange rules.
Not only CoinSwitch and WazirX, but another local crypto firm Vauld also saw similar treatment from the authorities in the country. The agency froze $46 million from Vauld for the facilitation of “crime-derived” proceeds from predatory lending firms.
However, Vauld stated that the company doesn’t agree with the grounds on which India’s enforcement directorate (ED) froze its account adding that it is not related to any kind of money laundering case. Moreover, it also stated that it will continue to comply with the regulatory authority’s requests.
However, when it comes to crypto adoption in India, CoinSwitch rival CoinDCX released a new decentralized finance (DeFi) mobile app called Okto. Even Binance CEO once called the nation a “frontrunner” for Web3 and crypto adoption.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
