In major crypto trade setback, OKX pulls out of India after Google, Apple crackdown

In a serious blow to the trade of decentralised digital money, OKX, a cryptocurrency exchange, has discontinued its services in India, notifying its customers on Thursday to pull out their money by the end of April, Techcrunch reported.

This decision came on the heels of Apple and Google's removal of OKX's app from their application stores in India.

According to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), an Indian government agency, many crypto exchanges have been operating illegally in the country.

The FIU further didn't mention OKX in its public statement, but it named other apps like Binance, Kraken, Huobi, and Gate.io as operating illegally in India.

Citing local regulations, the OKX warned its Indian customers to close all their active margin positions and draw their crypto-assets by April 30.

India brought cryptocurrencies under the laws of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing in March last year. Lots of companies, including Indian exchanges like CoinSwitch and CoinDCX, followed these rules. But many international exchanges didn't, according to FIU's last-year statement.

Many traders in India started using global crypto platforms to evade taxes. India started taxing virtual currencies in 2022, charging a 30% tax on profits and a 1% fee on each crypto transaction.

Indian crypto exchanges still need detailed verifications for new users. But many global platforms don't. For instance, Coinbase stopped letting Indian users sign up last year.