Cryptocurrency exchange, OKX announced via email to its users in India on Thursday that it will be discontinuing its services in the country.
Users were advised to withdraw their funds by the end of April.
The decision comes after both Apple and Google removed the OKX app from their platforms in India. This action followed a statement from the Indian government’s Financial Intelligence Unit, which declared that numerous cryptocurrency exchanges were operating unlawfully in the South Asian market.
While the FIU named Binance, Kraken, Huobi, and Gate.io as “illegally” operating apps in India, OKX was not specifically mentioned in the agency’s public statement.
OKX instructed its Indian customers to close all active margin positions and withdraw their funds by April 30, attributing its decision to “local regulations.”
Cryptocurrencies were brought under the purview of anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism regulations in India in March of the previous year. Although dozens of firms, including local exchanges like CoinSwitch and CoinDCX, registered with the FIU, several international exchanges failed to comply with the law, as noted by the FIU late last year.
Many traders in India turned to global cryptocurrency platforms to potentially evade taxes. India began taxing virtual currencies in 2022, imposing a 30% tax on gains and a 1% deduction on each crypto transaction.
While India-based cryptocurrency exchanges continued to enforce rigorous know-your-customer verifications for new users, the same standards were not consistently applied by many global platforms. Coinbase halted consumer sign-ups in India last year.
