India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND) has issued non-compliance notices to 15 offshore Virtual Digital Asset Service Providers (VDA SPs), accusing them of serving Indian users without meeting the country’s anti-money laundering obligations. The same order also directs internet intermediaries to remove the applications and web addresses of the flagged platforms from public access.
The action was announced by the Ministry of Finance through a Press Information Bureau (PIB) release posted at 11:12 AM Indian Standard Time (IST) on Wednesday, September 9, 2026.
The Director of FIU-IND issued the notices under Section 13 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), a provision that lets the regulator act against reporting entities that fail to meet anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) duties. Those duties cover registration with FIU-IND, know-your-customer (KYC) checks, record-keeping, and the filing of suspicious transaction reports.
The 15 platforms named in the release are Weex, operated by Weex International Exchange LTD; Blofin, run by BLF Global Limited; Rezorex; Bitunix, operated by Bitunix LLC; DigiFinex, run by DigiFinex Ltd; Toobit, operated by Hopeful Technology Co. Ltd.; XT.com, run by Fibtc Ltd and XT TECHNICAL PTE. LTD.; Latoken, operated by LAtrade Ltd; WOO X, run by Wootech Limited; Pionex, operated by Marketa Trading Inc.; ChangeNow, run by CHN Group LLC; SimpleSwap, operated by SimpleSwap LTD; Fixedfloat, run by FFGX Group LLC; WhiteBIT, operated by UAB Clear White Technologies; and Guardarian, run by FinSeven CZ.
The list mixes centralized order-book exchanges with instant-swap and on-ramp providers, an indication that India’s oversight net now covers business models well beyond the traditional exchange format.
In its statement, the ministry said the platforms “have been found to be operating illegally without complying with the relevant provisions of the PMLA in India.”
A second, separate order to switch off access
Alongside the PMLA action, the Director of FIU-IND, in his capacity as the nodal officer under India’s information technology law, has issued takedown notices under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act), read with Rule 3(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2025. That provision lets the government direct app stores, internet service providers, and hosting companies to disable public access to specific applications and web addresses.
The PIB release did not disclose the exact domains or app package names that intermediaries have been asked to remove, nor did it publish response deadlines or penalty amounts.
Why the notices apply to firms based outside India
VDA service providers were brought inside India’s AML/CFT framework in March 2023, when the Department of Revenue notified the sector as a class of reporting entities under the PMLA.
According to the release, the obligations cover entities engaged in activities such as the exchange between virtual digital assets and fiat currencies, the exchange between different forms of virtual digital assets, the transfer of virtual digital assets, the safekeeping or administration of virtual digital assets, and the provision of financial services related to the issuance and sale of a virtual digital asset.
The Ministry of Finance stressed that these obligations are “activity-based and are not contingent on physical presence of the entity in India.” In effect, any platform that offers the listed services to Indian users has to register with FIU-IND as a Reporting Entity, no matter where it is headquartered or where its servers are hosted.
A familiar playbook, now on its third major batch
The September 9 notices continue a compliance pattern that FIU-IND has followed since late 2023, when it first served show-cause notices on nine offshore exchanges, including Binance and KuCoin. Several of those platforms later paid penalties and completed registration in India.
In October 2025, the regulator issued similar notices to 25 offshore crypto exchanges, including BingX, LBank, CoinW, CEX.IO, and Poloniex, and asked intermediaries to switch off their apps and websites for Indian users. By early 2026, 49 crypto exchanges had registered with FIU-IND as reporting entities, of which 45 were based in India, and four were offshore platforms serving Indian users. During financial year 2024-25, FIU-IND imposed aggregate penalties of about ₹28 crore on non-compliant platforms.
The regulator also tightened compliance norms in January 2026 through updated AML/CFT guidelines that mandated cybersecurity audits by auditors empanelled with the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), formalised the role of the Principal Officer inside each registered firm, and added scrutiny for unhosted wallet and peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers.
In June 2026, FIU-IND asked leading exchanges to share data on over-the-counter (OTC) crypto trades above about $10,000, or roughly ₹9.44 lakh, citing blind spots in transaction visibility.
What the action means for users in India
For customers on the 15 named platforms, the practical impact will depend on how quickly app stores, internet service providers, and hosting companies act on the takedown notices.
Access to Indian rupee (INR) on-ramps, in-app trading, deposits, and customer support could shrink or stop entirely once intermediaries comply. Previous enforcement rounds have shown that recovering balances held on unregistered offshore venues becomes harder once access is cut off, since users lose their primary channel of communication with the platform.
The Ministry of Finance closed its statement with the government’s standard caution that crypto products and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) “are unregulated and can be highly risky” and that “there may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions.”
Registration with FIU-IND, where a platform holds it, is limited to anti-money laundering compliance and is not a product licence, a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) authorisation, or a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approval.
Also Read: India’s Crypto Law Nears Turning Point With Sept. 16 Finance Ministry Hearing
