Apple has removed some cryptocurrency apps from its App Store in India, weeks after financial regulators declared them operating illegally. On December 28, India’s Financial Intelligence Unit announced that nine cryptocurrency exchanges did not comply with anti-money laundering laws and therefore asked India’s Ministry of Information Technology to block these websites. Less than two weeks later, Apple removed the apps from the offending service.
The request involves nine services in total, including Binance, Kraken, Huobi, Gate.io, Bittrex and Bitfinex, and OKX. As of press time, Bitstamp, which was included on the Financial Intelligence Unit's list, was still running on the AppStore.
The removal was most likely at the request of the IT department, but so far it seems to have only affected apps in the AppStore. The websites themselves are still accessible in the country, as are the Google Play Store apps.
Apple has yet to comment on the removal of the apps. Users who already own these apps can currently use them without any issues.
After India began to impose virtual currency taxes in 2023 (including a 30% income tax and a 1% transaction tax), it has begun to crack down on cryptocurrencies. Some exchanges are still operating legally in India, including CoinSwitchKuber and CoinDCX.