• India’s anti-organized crime agency had already announced an ongoing investigation against the Binance-owned exchange.
• WazirX is being accused since last year of laundering money from criminal activities.

Following the announcement on the eve of an investigation against cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, the local unit owned by Binance, the Federal Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday froze all of the operator’s assets in the country.

The Indian agency has accused WazirX of allegedly violating money laundering regulations. The frozen assets amount to Rs 646.70 crore ($8.16 million), ED reported.

So far WazirX has not issued a statement in response to the seizure of assets by the Federal Enforcement Directorate, said Reuters.

The accusation filed by ED against the platform acquired by Binance in 2019, the largest exchange in the world, is for the alleged laundering of some 350 million dollars unjustified from instant loan companies, coming from criminal activities.

The investigation against WazirX was launched by the agency in 2021, after detecting suspicious money movements through the exchange.

During the money laundering investigation into the Chinese-owned illegal online gambling platform and apps, ED discovered that some Rs 570 crore belonging to organized crime was converted into cryptocurrencies by WazirX on its own platform or through Binance and FTX, among others.

Why You Should Care

• WazirX is one of the top five crypto asset trading platforms in India.