MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s financial crime-fighting agency said on Friday that WazirX, one of country’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, was under investigation for suspected violation of foreign exchange regulations involving transactions worth 27.90 billion rupees ($381.93 million).
The federal Enforcement Directorate revealed the launch of the investigation in a tweet. WazirX – which was acquired in 2019 by Binance, the world’s largest digital currency exchange – did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The investigation comes at time when the Indian government is dithering over the introduction of a law that could ban cryptocurrencies.
The government was set to present a bill to parliament by March that proposed a ban on cryptocurrencies, making trading and holding them illegal. But the bill was not tabled in the session and since then conflicting statements have added to the uncertainty over the bill’s fate.
($1 = 73.0500 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nupur Anand and Aftab Ahmed; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
