Apple Blocks Prominent Foreign Exchanges from Providing Services

The Apple App Store in India has blocked KuCoin, Bitget, Huobi, OKX, Gate.io, MEXC, and other prominent crypto exchange apps. The Indian government has issued a non-compliance notice against these crypto exchanges. Indian users will no longer get access to these exchanges.

A notice is sent to exchanges including KuCoin, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, Bittrex, Gate.io, Huobi, Bitfinex, Kraken, and one more reputed exchange for illegally operating in India.

The notice clarifies that any exchange providing services to Indian users must comply by registering itself as a reporting entity and filing statements with the income tax department. Since these mentioned exchanges do not comply, the FIU recommends the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block them.

What Views Do Indian Crypto Exchange Founders Hold?

Even though certain crypto exchanges are blocked by the Apple Store, they are still available on Google’s Play Store and web versions. Seeing this recent ban Sumit Gupta founder of CoinDCX commented on X, formerly Twitter, that in the changing landscape in which foreign exchanges are now banned, the crypto community is looking to transition from noncompliant offshore exchanges to complain about Indian exchanges.

CoinDCX announced that it would provide rewards to customers who transfer their crypto assets from global exchanges to its India-based platform.

Ashish Singhal, the co-founder and chief executive of CoinSwitch wrote on X that several Indian VDA exchanges are already compliant with India’s requirements and there is no reason why the foreign exchanges do not comply with the same if they want to commence business in India. 

He further added that it is better for consumer protection in India since it will provide greater regulatory oversight of the ecosystem.

Many Indian traders have switched to global cryptocurrency platforms due to the implication of high taxes. These taxes were started by the Indian government last year.

Before this notice from the government, the users rushed to foreign exchanges due to heavy taxes. There is a 30% tax on crypto and a 1% tax deduction at source for every crypto trade. Because of this, the volume of crypto exchanges decreased. 

However, after the latest action, the users will be prohibited from using foreign exchanges.

The recent action from the Indian government comes from the growing demand for the regulations. During the recent G-20 Summit, the Indian government called for global collaboration on crypto regulations.

Summary

The Apple app store in India has banned the apps of certain profound exchanges that are providing their service in the country. The Indian Ministry of Finance has sent a notice to these exchanges. Some Crypto exchange founders in India have raised their views regarding this matter. 

Last year when huge taxes were rolled out, the users shifted to foreign exchange, but due to this latest notice, they are returning to the Indian exchanges.

Amanda Shinoy is one of the few women in the space invested knee-deep in crypto. An advocate for increasing the presence of women in crypto, she is known for her accurate technical analysis and price prediction of cryptocurrencies. Readers are often waiting for her opinion about the next rally. She is a finance expert with an MBA in finance. Quitting a corporate job at a leading financial institution, she now engages herself full-time into financial education for the general public.