WazirX blocked 2,431 accounts in past six months

Cryptocurrency trade WazirX blocked over 2,431 accounts based mostly on its inner transaction monitoring course of or directives from the regulation enforcement businesses throughout October 2022 to March 2023 interval, the corporate mentioned in its biannual transparency report.

Comparatively, WazirX had initiated the blocking of round 700 accounts within the March 2022 to September 2022 interval.

During the October-March length, the cryptocurrency trade acquired 431 requests from regulation enforcement businesses, in opposition to a complete transaction quantity of $390 million on the platform. 46 requests have been from international regulation enforcement businesses, whereas 385 requests have been from Indian businesses. These requests pertain to searching for person information, content material, and account restrictions.

All of those requests pertained to issues associated to account blocking, suspected felony proceedings, investigation, and data was sought from WazirX as as to whether such accused had dealt in cryptocurrencies by way of the platform.

“WazirX promptly provided all information as sought, and our compliance rate in record timeliness and accuracy was 100%. Apart from that, blocking of over 2,431 accounts was also initiated based on our internal transaction monitoring process and/or directives from the LEAs,” it mentioned within the report.

It added that among the Indian and Foreign Law Enforcement Agencies that WazirX has labored with throughout this era are: National Investigation Agency (NIA), Enforcement Directorate, state cyber crime cells, Odisha Vigilance Department, Special Task Force, Bhopal Police, West Bengal Police, Maharashtra Police, along with international businesses similar to crime department, Toronto Police Department, Police Department Dortmund, New York County District Attorney, Burlington Police, California Police Department, Florida Police, and many others.

WazirX vice-president Rajagopal Menon mentioned: “The transparency report is a testament to our commitment to enabling a secure and reliable crypto ecosystem for our users. We focussed our efforts on making our platform more user-friendly and provided robust customer service for our users to connect with for any concerns”.“We also kept up our ongoing efforts of collaborating with law enforcement agencies to make crypto free of any fraudulent activities and usher in an environment of trust,” he added.

Earlier this month, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had mentioned in response to a query in Parliament that proceeds amounting to Rs 953.70 crore from felony actions involving cryptocurrencies have been seized, frozen or connected beneath the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) and Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA). She was responding to a query on whether or not the federal government was conscious of cryptocurrencies getting used for cash laundering.

Notably, final week, the finance ministry tightened the definition of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and included cryptocurrencies within the definition of the anti cash laundering regulation.

With this, crypto exchanges and intermediaries coping with digital digital property will now be required to carry out KYC of their shoppers and customers of the platform. As per the amendments, entities dealing in digital digital property (VDAs) will now be thought-about ‘reporting entity’ beneath the PMLA.

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