India Block Binance Kraken More Major Crypto Exchange Apps in Apple Store All Details

Apple’s App Store is not showing several foreign crypto exchanges like Binance and Kraken in India as of Wednesday, January 10. Several members of India’s crypto community posted screenshots of their Apple Store searches on X, which showed no results on the App Store. This comes at a time when the Indian government is putting a big focus on ensuring that all crypto companies operating in the country are registered with the relevant authorities.

The overnight disappearance of these foreign exchanges from the App Store comes about a week after the Indian government issued notices seeking updates on their legal compliance statuses. At the time, the Indian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) had urged the government to ban these crypto exchanges until they show how compliant they are with India’s crypto laws in force so far.

Members of India’s crypto community are actively discussing on social media the reasons and warnings behind the disappearance of these apps from Apple’s ecosystem in India. Along with Binance and Kraken, Mexc, Huobi and Gate.io are also not showing up on searches.

The move appears to be a part of regulatory efforts that India is making aimed at addressing concerns related to tax evasion with regard to the crypto sector.

After India introduced taxes on crypto income last year, many Indian traders decided to transfer their deposits to offshore international exchanges. Indians are required to pay a 30 percent tax on all crypto earnings and a 1 percent TDS on all crypto transactions. As these laws came into effect in 2022, Indian crypto exchanges reported a drop in trading volumes.

The government now wants to reduce the margin of misuse of crypto for criminal activities and quietly promote the use of native exchanges.