One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, OKX, based in the Seychelles, is ceasing its operations in India due to regulatory obstacles. The management of OKX stated that the exchange will no longer provide services to Indian clients. However, they will be able to withdraw their cryptocurrency assets until April 30, 2024.
The platform’s management notified Indian traders about the need to close marginal positions and complete transactions related to cryptocurrency derivatives, futures, and options. Indian users will also have to withdraw funds that were involved in OKX’s passive earning instruments such as OKX Earn, Loan, and Jumpstart.
After the specified deadline, the accounts of users from India will be blocked. They will be able to withdraw money from the exchange, but the rest of the platform’s functions will be unavailable to them. For its part, OKX guaranteed the safety of funds until the moment of withdrawal.
The OKX company explained that such a measure was taken in response to the requirement of the Indian regulator. Last year, the country introduced restrictions on the operation of some digital asset service providers for «illegal activities without complying with the provisions of the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) in India.» Among such exchanges were Binance, Kucoin, HTX, Kraken, Gate, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC, and Bitfinex. Access to these cryptocurrency exchanges and their resources for local traders and investors was blocked. It should be noted that OKX was not among the listed exchanges. It is known that the management of some trading platforms initiated negotiations on this issue with the Indian authorities.
The OKX exchange website was blocked in India in January this year. After that, OKX introduced new KYC registration procedures, involving strict control of identification and establishment of the client’s identity. However, this did not fully satisfy the Indian authorities, which led to the exchange’s decision to close its activities for users of this country.
Earlier, OKX announced the suspension of services for users in Uzbekistan from March 30, and a few days ago, it stopped the possibility of trading USDT stablecoins in the Eurozone.