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Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) has imposed a monetary penalty of INR 9.3 Cr on crypto platform Bybit
The agency said that after conducting a thorough examination of written and oral submissions from Bybit, the FIU found the crypto platform liable of the charges for various violations
It is pertinent to mention that earlier this month, Bybit announced a temporary restriction on its services for Indian users
The Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) has imposed a monetary penalty of INR 9.3 Cr on crypto platform Bybit due to the violations of Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005.
“Bybit kept expanding its services in the Indian market without securing mandatory registration with the FIU-IND. The persistent and continuous non-compliance caused FIU-IND to block their websites to stop operations,” FIU said in a statement.
The agency said that after conducting a thorough examination of written and oral submissions from Bybit, it found the crypto platform liable of the charges for various violations.
“In an order dated January 31st, 2025, and exercising authority under Section 13 of the PMLA, it was unequivocally established that Bybit was in violation of Section 12(1) of the PMLA read with Rule 2(1)(h), Rule 7(2), Rule 8(2) Rule 8 (4), Rule 3(1)(D) and Rule 7(3) of PMLR, 2005. Consequently, a total penalty of INR 9,27,00,000 was imposed on Bybit,” said the FIU.
It is pertinent to mention that earlier this month, Bybit announced a temporary restriction on its services for Indian users. In the statement, the FIU said that the persistent and continuous non-compliance caused it to block Bybit’s websites.
Notably, in March 2023, the Indian government brought crypto businesses under the provisions of the PMLA, mandating them to report suspicious transactions and conduct customer due diligence among others.
Later that year, all virtual digital asset service providers were asked to register as reporting entities with the FIU.
The same year, nine offshore crypto exchanges received show cause notices in December from the FIU for illegally operating in the country and running afoul of anti-money laundering laws.
After the notices, the apps of these platforms were delisted from Google and Apple’s app stores.
However, in 2024, Binance, which was one of the apps which received a penalty and a show cause notice from the FIU, paid INR 18.82 Cr to the agency and resumed its operations in the country after registering with it.
