CoinSwitch Kuber exchange in turn was investigated by the Indian authorities for violating foreign exchange laws

India's leading cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch Kuber has come under scrutiny from the authorities for allegedly violating foreign exchange laws.

According to an August 25 report from Bloomberg, India's Board of Directors of Enforcement raided CoinSwitch offices Kuber as well as the residence of Co-Founder and CEO Ashish Singhal. CoinSwitch Kuber is under suspicion of buying back more than $250 million worth of shares in violation of foreign exchange laws, as well as failing to comply with KYC requirements.

The Directorate General of Enforcement (ED) is a federal intelligence agency operating under the Indian Ministry of Finance. According to its website, the main goal of the agency in the above action against CoinSwitch Kuber is to thoroughly address violations of the Foreign Exchange Management and Anti-Money Laundering Act. Even so, CoinSwitch Kuber said it remains compliant with regulations and is ready to work to make things clearer.

“We received a series of inquiries from various government agencies. Our approach has always been towards transparency.”

Launched in India in 2020, CoinSwitch Kuber is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in India along with WazirX and CoinDCX, with over 18 million registered users. CoinSwitch Kuber becomes a crypto unicorn in 2021 after raising $260 million in a Series C round led by Coinbase Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. The company is also backed by Sequoia, Paradigm, Ribbit and Tiger Global.

Earlier this month, the ED also froze about $8.1 million from WazirX, alleging that WazirX facilitated money laundering transactions. This is the main cause of the "fiery" conflict in the relationship between WazirX and Binance.

It can be said that the crypto market in India is entering the most difficult period in history, as this year the national government has issued two extremely draconian tax laws including a 30% tax on All crypto income and 1% tax withheld at source (TDS) are in effect as of early July 2022. This has led to a 95% drop in crypto trading volume in India.

Even the most proud project in this country, Polygon, must have a "distance" from the government, which greatly hinders the process of supporting the domestic crypto industry by " tightening” funding conditions for blockchain projects in India.

Crypto Fox News Summary

Aug 25, 2022