Google removes Binance, other offshore crypto apps from Play Store

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

crypto wallets such as Binance was cut off for Indian users, their apps were also taken down from Google Play Store.

Though there was no official communication from the government, electronics and information technology ministry officials said the move to direct Google to take down these apps followed the finance ministry’s inputs that these platforms are being allegedly used for money laundering.

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ET on Saturday reported that the government had barred Indian users’ access to web platforms of foreign cryptocurrency exchanges and virtual digital asset service providers such as Binance, Kucoin and OKX. The electronics and IT ministry had then also issued orders to take down the Android apps of these platforms.
The iOS store apps of these platforms have already been taken down, following an order issued by the ministry last week. The action against these digital asset service providers taken over the past fortnight was based on inputs from the finance ministry’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which suggested that these platforms may have been used for money laundering.
The FIU had issued notices to Binance and eight other cryptocurrency exchanges on December 28, asking them to explain their operations in India, since they were operating without permissions and were not following the laws required to prevent money laundering. The FIU had also recommended to the IT ministry that access to the uniform resource locator