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ED investigating 10 crypto exchanges for money laundering

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting an investigation into at least 10 cryptocurrency exchanges. The ED suspects these exchanges of having laundered more than INR 1,000 crore including crime proceeds of the accused companies in the Chinese loan apps case. When the instant loan app companies realised that they were being investigated, they closed the business and used crypto to syphon the funds abroad. Several loan apps approached the crypto exchanges to buy crypto assets and send them to international wallets. The ED found that these exchanges did not conduct any enhanced due diligence and also didn't raise suspicious transaction reports (STRs). The development comes after the ED froze assets of India's largest crypto exchange, WazirX. The financial law enforcement agency has asked other exchanges to join the probe after instances of loan apps approaching crypto exchanges for similar transactions were revealed.