After Binance was fined $2.25 million ( ₹18.8 crore) for noncompliance with Indian anti-money-laundering policies, Bitget is facing regulatory challenges in the nation and now seeks to obtain a license, considering the importance of Indian customers.
The major exchange is in talks with Indian regulators to fulfill the conditions required to obtain licensing, comply with regional laws, and operate successfully in the Indian market.
1/ We are aware of the current difficulty in accessing the Bitget platform in India. We’re actively exploring ways to serve the region while ensuring our platform meets the region’s compliance requirements.
— Bitget India🇮🇳 (@BitgetIndia) July 3, 2024
As per Bitget’s announcement on X, it is engaged in discussing the same with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to get the Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration. Although the exchange has its presence in India, it faces issues with new users’ experience in accessing the features in the Bitget application on the Google Play Store and App Store due to the absence of a VASP license.
In an X post, Simran Alphonso, Head of Global Communications, Bitget, mentioned India as a high-priority market. She further writes about the active efforts of the exchange to make it compliant to ease Indian customers. Bitget’s continuation of services in India depends on its ability to sail through the strict regulatory challenges the region has imposed. In other words, securing the VASP license is unavoidable for Bitget to survive in the Indian market.
India’s regulatory authorities are known to have strict regulations on crypto providers’ operations, which have often restricted noncompliance from operating at full capacity. However, India has seen significant traction in the cryptocurrency market, and considering it, the nation is adopting a regulatory framework and not imposing an outright ban.
India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has stressed crypto regulation at the G20 summit. India is advancing its technological capabilities, allowing crypto exchanges to operate according to the norms. The government has levied a 30% tax on crypto gains and a 1% tax at source.
In the history of crypto exchanges in India, OKX had to stop operating because it was noncompliant with the regulations.
It seems India is ready to embrace new technologies but on its own terms.
