The government has ordered the removal of websites and application of 15 virtual digital asset service-providers (VDA SPs) for non-compliance with anti-money laundering rules, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.

The financial intelligence unit-India (FIU-IND) ordered the action against Weex, Blofin, Rezorex, Bitunix, DigiFinex, Toobit, XT.com, Latoken, WOO X, Pionex, ChangeNow, SimpleSwap, Fixedfloat, WhiteBIT and Guardarian.

The director, FIU-IND, issued notices for the takedown of application/URLs of the said VDA SPs for public access as they were found to be “operating illegally” without complying with the relevant provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PML) Act, 2002.

“The VDA SPs operating in India (whether offshore or onshore) and engaged in activities like exchange between virtual digital assets and fiat currencies, transfer of virtual digital assets, safekeeping or administration of virtual digital assets or instruments enabling control over virtual digital assets etc. are required to be registered with FIU-IND as Reporting Entity and comply with the set of obligations as mandated under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002(PMLA) and Rules framed there under,” the ministry said in a release.

“These obligations are activity-based and are not contingent on physical presence of the entity in India. The regulation casts reporting, record keeping, and other obligations on the VDA SPs under the PML Act which also includes registration with the FIU-IND.”

Crypto products and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are unregulated and can be highly risky, the ministry said. “There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions.”