The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of India has just announced that 49 cryptocurrency exchanges have completed registration under the country's anti-money laundering legal framework for the 2024-25 financial year.
This is a significant step towards strengthening regulatory oversight of India's rapidly growing digital asset sector.
FIU India says 49 crypto companies now meet AML standards for financial year 24–25.
According to FIU's latest annual report, the majority of registered platforms are domestic, with 45 exchanges operating in India. The remaining four are foreign platforms that have registered with FIU as reporting entities, allowing them to continue serving Indian users in compliance with the country's regulations.
In India, cryptocurrencies are classified as Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs). Furthermore, the law designates platforms that facilitate trading these assets as VDA Service Providers (VDA SPs).
In 2023, the regulatory authority officially brought these organizations under the purview of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (PMLA). As reporting entities, the FIU requires VDA SPs to submit Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs).
In addition, they must identify and report the true owner of the wallet, monitor Capital activities such as initial coin offerings or new Token issuances, and track money transfers between hosted and unhosted wallets.
In its report, the FIU stated that strategic analysis of STRs (Strategic Savings, Exchange Rates) has highlighted Dai risks within the cryptocurrency ecosystem . While acknowledging the potential for financial innovation and wealth creation, the FIU warned that cryptocurrencies are being exploited for serious criminal activities. Prominent risk indicators include the use of crypto for illicit money transfers (hawala), illegal gambling, and sophisticated scams.
"However, VDA and VDA SP still pose risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, due to their global scope, rapid transaction processing, support for peer-to-peer transactions, facilitation of anonymity, and increased complexity in money transfer flows and counterparty identification," according to the report .
The report also revealed that the FIU had fined a total of 28 crore INR (approximately $3.1 million) in the 2024-25 fiscal year against crypto exchange for non-compliance with regulations. In October, the agency also sent notices to 25 exchanges, including BingX, LBank, CoinW, CEX.IO, and Poloniex, for violating India's anti-money laundering laws.
Despite ongoing regulatory tightening, many major exchanges worldwide have returned to the Indian market. Bybit , for example , re-entered the market after completing registration procedures and paying a $1 million fine.
Binance also returned to India in 2024 after paying a $2.2 million fine. In December, Coinbase reopened new user registrations and is expected to launch its fiat currency deposit and withdrawal gateway in 2026.
Besides tightening regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges, authorities are also increasing crackdowns on scams related to cryptocurrencies. Recently, many scams have been dismantled, most notably a multi-level marketing scheme that had been operating for 10 years , defrauding small investors with promises of high returns.
