BINANCE COINS A NEW PHASE IN INDIA

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange that was banned by the government in January, is poised to return to India by paying a penalty of about $2 million, people aware of the developments told ET.

The crypto exchange will come back as an entity registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the finance ministry, they added. FIU is tasked with oversight of trade in virtual digital assets (VDA). Binance will comply with all applicable laws, including the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as well as the VDA taxation framework, “which it had been sloppily flouting until now”, said one person cited above.

Officials aware of the matter said India’s stance “has always been clear to all global cryptocurrency exchanges — comply with all laws to continue operating in India”.