ED serves FEMA notice to cryptocurrency exchange WazirX: Minister

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has served crypto exchange WazirX a notice under the FEMA Act, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told Rajya Sabha.

The ED is investigating two cases related to crypto-currency against WazirX under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), he said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

"In one of the cases, investigation done so far has revealed that one Indian Crypto-exchange platform, Wazirx, operated by Zanmai Labs Private Limited in India was using the walled infrastructure of Cayman Island based exchange BINANCE. Further it has been found that all crypto transactions between these two exchanges were not even being recorded on the blockchains and were thus cloaked in mystery," he said in a written reply on Tuesday.

Reacting to the Parliament's reply, WazirX said it has not been served a notice for money laundering.

According to the minister, a Show Cause Notice (SCN) has been issued under the provisions of FEMA against WazirX for allowing outward remittance of crypto assets worth Rs 2,790 crore to unknown wallets.

Further, in another case, it is noticed that Indian exchanges namely WazirX has allowed the foreign users' request to convert one crypto into another on its own platform as well as by using transfer from third-party exchanges namely FTX, BINANCE, etc, he said.