The Curious Case of Binance, Kraken Disappearing from Apple India’s App Store

Apple’s App Store, as of Wednesday, January 10 is not showing a number of foreign crypto exchanges like Binance and Kraken in India. Several members of India’s crypto community posted screenshots of their Apple Store searches on X, showing no results on the App Store. The development comes at a time when the government of India is laying mega focus on making sure that all crypto firms operating in the country, are registered with the concerned authorities.

The overnight disappearence of these foreign exchanges from App Store comes around 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 to government to ban these crypto exchanges until they show how compliant they are with India’s crypto laws deployed so far.

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

The move seems to be a part of the regulatory efforts that India is undertaking in regards to the crypto sector, aiming to to address concerns related to tax evasion.

After India imposed taxes on crypto incomes last year, many Indian traders decided to move their deposits to offshore international exchanges. Indians have to pay a 30 percent tax on all crypto earnings and one percent TDS on all crypto transactions. As soon as these laws went live in 2022, Indian crypto exchanges recorded a nosedive in trading volumes.

The government now wishes to narrow the margin of crypto misuse for criminal activities and silently promote the use of native exchanges.

“By asking offshore exchanges to register with the FIU-IND, the idea is to increase compliance with Indian laws on taxation, Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and KYC norms. This will help create a level playing field between Indian and offshore exchanges, fortify compliance guardrails and also enhance consumer protection. This is also better for consumer protection in India,” Ashish Singhal, Co-founder and Group CEO, PeepalCo told Gadgets360.

As of now, none of the affected international exchanges have responded to this development.