The Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) has issued non-compliance notices to 15 Virtual Digital Assets Service Providers (VDA SPs) under Section 13 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). The affected entities include Weex International Exchange LTD, BLF Global Limited, RezorEx, Bitunix LLC, DigiFinex Ltd, Hopeful Technology Co. Ltd. (Toobit), Fibtc Ltd/XT TECHNICAL PTE. LTD. (XT.com), LAtrade Ltd (Latoken), Wootech Limited (WOO X), Marketa Trading Inc. (Pionex), CHN Group LLC (ChangeNow), SimpleSwap LTD, FFGX Group LLC (Fixedfloat), UAB Clear White Technologies (WhiteBIT), and FinSeven CZ (Guardarian).
Additionally, the Director of FIU-IND, acting as the nodal officer under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 read with rule 3(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2025, has issued takedown notices for these entities. The notices require the removal of their applications/URLs from public access as they have been found operating illegally without complying with PMLA provisions in India.
Virtual Digital Assets Service Providers were brought under the Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework in March 2023. The regulation requires all VDA SPs operating in India (both offshore and onshore) engaged in activities such as exchange between virtual digital assets and fiat currencies, transfer of virtual digital assets, safekeeping or administration of virtual digital assets, or instruments enabling control over virtual digital assets to register with FIU-IND as Reporting Entities. These obligations are activity-based and not contingent on physical presence in India, mandating reporting, record keeping, and other compliance requirements under the PML Act.
The notice includes a specific warning to the general public that crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky, noting that there may be no regulatory recourse for any losses from such transactions.