Cryptocurrency exchange Okx has notified its users in India that the platform is shutting down services in the country “due to local regulations.” The exchange has advised users in India to “withdraw all funds” from their accounts by the end of April. The Indian government has not regulated crypto and the country’s finance minister recently stressed that crypto assets are not currencies.
Okx Exits Indian Crypto Market
Crypto exchange Okx is shutting down its operations in India. The exchange sent a notice to its users on Thursday, stating: “We regret to inform you that Okx is no longer providing services to users in India.” The notice adds:
Due to local regulations, you need to … withdraw all funds from your account.
In addition, users must also “close all margin positions, as well as positions in perpetuals, futures, and options” and “redeem all funds from Grow products: Earn, Loan, Jumpstart.” These steps must be completed by April 30 at 12 a.m. UTC, Okx advised. Accounts will be restricted to withdrawals after this date.
Okx’s announcement came after Apple and Google removed several crypto apps from their stores. This follows a move by India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) which flagged these exchanges as operating illegally in the country. In December last year, the Indian FIU issued “compliance Show Cause Notices” to nine offshore crypto service providers. The Indian ministry of finance shared at the time that 31 crypto service providers had registered with the FIU.
India currently does not regulate crypto assets. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said last week that crypto assets cannot be currencies, adding: “We haven’t regulated them even now.”
As the host of the G20 last year, India raised the issue of regulating crypto assets with the G20. “If one country regulates it and others don’t, it’ll be an easy way of moving money, round-tripping, or funding drugs, or even terrorism and so on. So we wanted to create a kind of a framework by taking it to the level of G20,” Sitharaman recently explained, emphasizing that she is “sure there will be some framework emerging.”
Source: Bitcoin
