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

Apple's App Store is not showing many 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 paying great attention to 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 almost a week after the Indian government issued a notice 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 showed how compliant they were with India's crypto laws in place so far.

Members of India's crypto community have been 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 appearing in searches.

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

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