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India Strengthens Crypto Regulations, Targets Anonymity Tokens

India Strengthens Crypto Regulations, Targets Anonymity Tokens
Closing India’s crypto blind spot · thehindubusinessline.com

India has updated its rules for digital money to make it safer.

They are especially worried about digital money that can hide who owns it or where it comes from.

The new rules say that any digital money that makes transactions secret is too risky and should not be allowed.

This includes things like crypto tumblers and mixers.

If someone wants to move digital money between two wallets, at least one of them must be a wallet that the company controls, so they can check who is sending and receiving the money.

The rules also say that companies must have a special certificate to show they are following all the security rules.

This is to make sure that bad people can't use digital money to do bad things like money laundering or funding terrorism.

Key facts

Organization
Financial Intelligence Unit of India (FIU-IND)
Date
January 8, 2026
Guidelines Focus
Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs), self-custody wallets, anonymity-enhancing tokens
Risk Assessment
Anonymity-enhancing tokens deemed 'unacceptably high risk'
Exclusions
Digital Rupee (e₹), Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)
Compliance Requirement
Cyber Security Audit Certificate from CERT-In empanelled auditor
Audit Scope
Governance, compliance, access control, infrastructure, network, application, AML systems, third-party, cloud services, incident detection and response

Quotes

FIU-IND guidelines document

The official document outlining the updated guidelines for virtual digital assets by the Financial Intelligence Unit of India.

“Reporting entities [REs] shall refrain from permitting deposits or withdrawals of anonymity-enhancing crypto tokens or VDAS designed to conceal or obfuscate the origin, ownership, or value of transactions. Accordingly, REs shall consider dealings in AECs as not permissible within their risk-mitigation framework and such transactions shall not be facilitated.”
thehindubusinessline.com

Sources

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