CoinSwitch Kuber was raided by the Indian Law Enforcement Agency, the CEO responded: "It has nothing to do with money laundering"
This article comes fromThe Blocksecondary title
Odaily Translator | Nian Yin Si Tang
Summary:
Summary:
- Earlier this week, reports emerged that Indian authorities had raided the offices of cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch Kuber.- CoinSwitch co-founder and CEO Ashish Singhal released a statement on Saturday announcing。
The exchange is cooperating with law enforcement and says the raids have nothing to do with money laundering
CoinSwitch Kuber co-founder and CEO Ashish Singhal tweeted on Saturday that his company was cooperating with India's Enforcement Directorate and that the raids reported last week were not related to money laundering.
“The Enforcement Directorate (Bengaluru) has been engaging with us regarding the functionality of our crypto platform/exchange,” Singhal wrote. “We are cooperating fully with them.”
Reports from Bloomberg and CoinDesk last week indicated that the searches were related to the country's foreign exchange regulations. Indian authorities have been investigating the country’s cryptocurrency exchange ecosystem for months.
Singhal did not go into the details behind the Enforcement Agency’s actions, but highlighted the still fluid nature of cryptocurrency regulation in India.
“Cryptocurrency is a new asset class, in its early stages, with no clear classification in most parts of the world. Right now, the law (in India and elsewhere) is still evaluating cryptocurrency as a ‘commodity’,” 'Securities', 'currencies' are something new," Singhal said. "It's a work in progress."
Singhal said that CoinSwitch is “committed to building a responsible crypto ecosystem that contributes to the Indian economy and creates wealth and jobs for millions of Indians.”
Last October,Last October,CoinSwitch Kuber Completes $260M Series C Funding at a $1.9B Valuation
, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Coinbase Ventures led the round, with participation from existing investors Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India. This is a16z’s first investment in India.In August this year,CoinSwitch Announces Web3 Discovery Fund, a $10M Web3 Investment Fund
, which aims to invest in and incubate early-stage startups building blockchain solutions for the Web3 field. The fund’s investor partners include: Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Woodstock Fund and Elevation Capital, and its incubation partner is Buidlers Tribe.
Apart from CoinSwitch, there is another major cryptocurrency exchange in India facing the same situation.
The Indian Ministry of Finance confirmed on August 2 that local cryptocurrency exchange WazirX is under investigation for two cases of money laundering and violation of foreign exchange rules.Indian Finance Minister Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Upper House of Parliament that the Enforcement Bureau。Investigating allegations of laundering 27.9 crore rupees (over $350 million) via WazirXLaw Enforcement Searches Wazirx Director
, frozen its bank assets worth Rs 646.7 crore.Not long after, according to sources familiar with the matter,Indian law enforcement agency is investigating at least 10 cryptocurrency trading platforms for money laundering
, The amount involved is about 130 million US dollars.
