FIU registered crypto exchange list in India: what it means, and how to use it

The official list of FIU registered crypto exchanges in India is published by the Financial Intelligence Unit, India (FIU-IND) on fiuindia.gov.in. Any platform that exchanges, transfers or holds crypto for Indian customers has had to register there since March 2023, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. In July 2026 the RBI told a parliamentary committee there were 54 FIU-registered service providers.

Use the list as your first check, never your last. Registration means a platform has signed up for anti-money-laundering duties: KYC, record keeping and reporting suspicious activity. It is not RBI approval, not a licence, and not a promise that your money is safe. This post explains what the list tells you, what it does not, and the other checks I would run before trusting any platform.

Why a co-founder is telling you not to over-trust a registration

I co-founded Unocoin in 2013. Unocoin is registered with FIU-IND as a reporting entity under the PMLA. So you might expect me to tell you that registration is all you need to know.

I won't. I want you to understand exactly what that registration does and does not promise, for every platform, including ours. From the start our rule was that you can't run from the government; you deal with them and you never go offside. Registering with FIU-IND is part of that. But it is the floor, not the ceiling.

What FIU-IND registration means

On 7 March 2023 the Ministry of Finance issued notification S.O. 1072(E). It brought five activities under the PMLA:

1. Exchange between virtual digital assets and rupees or other fiat
2. Exchange between one VDA and another
3. Transfer of VDAs
4. Safekeeping or administration of VDAs, or instruments that give control over them
5. Participation in financial services for an issuer's offer and sale of a VDA

Any business doing these things for others is a "reporting entity" under the PMLA, and must register with FIU-IND. In November 2023 FIU-IND was formally designated as the anti-money-laundering supervisor for these service providers.

Registration comes with duties. A registered platform has to:

• Verify the identity of its customers and their beneficial owners, with extra checks for higher-risk cases
• Keep records that let each transaction be reconstructed, for five years
• Report transaction information and suspicious transactions to FIU-IND
• Appoint a Designated Director and a Principal Officer responsible for compliance

That is why a registered platform asks for your PAN and Aadhaar, and why it cannot let you trade anonymously. If an app lets you skip KYC, that is not a convenience. It is a warning.

How many platforms are registered

The number has grown steadily. A Lok Sabha reply in December 2023 put it at 28. By October 2025, 50 were registered. In its presentation to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, reported on 3 July 2026, the RBI counted 54 FIU-registered service providers, serving 39.3 million KYC-verified users holding about ₹20,437 crore.

I am not going to reproduce the list here, because it changes and an old copy is worse than none. Go to fiuindia.gov.in and look for the published list of registered VDA service providers. Search for the exact company name, not just the brand name in the app store.

A few practical tips when you read it. App names and company names often differ, so find the legal name of the company behind the app, usually in its terms of use or the footer of its website, and search for that. Fake apps sometimes copy the name and logo of a real platform, so download only from the link on the platform's official website. And if a platform tells you it is "applying" or "in process", treat it as not registered until it appears on the list. The list is the record. A screenshot in a WhatsApp group is not.

Registration is not regulation, or a safety guarantee

This is the part most people get wrong. FIU-IND registration is about money laundering. It is not about whether your coins are safe.

India has no dedicated law on crypto governance, disclosure, investor protection or grievance redressal. There is no regulator that checks a crypto platform's reserves the way a bank regulator checks a bank. There is no deposit insurance. FIU-IND itself describes crypto products and NFTs as "unregulated and can be highly risky", with possibly no regulatory recourse for losses.

So a registered platform can still be hacked. It can still make operational mistakes. It can still fail. Indian users have lived through large platform losses. Registration tells you a company has agreed to know its customers and report suspicious money. It does not tell you how it stores your Bitcoin.

Never let anyone tell you a registration means the RBI or the government has approved a platform, or that it holds a licence. Neither is true.

Why offshore platforms keep getting notices

FIU-IND has made clear that PMLA obligations depend on the activity, not on where a company is based. If you serve Indian users, you must register, wherever your office is.

It has backed this up. On 28 December 2023 it issued show-cause notices to nine offshore platforms and asked for their URLs to be blocked. In June 2024 it imposed a penalty of ₹18.82 crore on Binance, and in January 2025 a penalty of ₹9.27 crore on Bybit. On 1 October 2025 it issued notices to 25 more offshore platforms and sought takedowns under the IT Act.

The stated ground every time is non-compliance with the PMLA. That does not mean those platforms were scams. It means they were serving Indians without registering. For you, the lesson is simple: if a platform is not on the list, its app or website could be blocked, and you could find it hard to get your money out.

Other checks to do before you sign up

Once you have confirmed a platform is on the FIU-IND list, run through the rest. This is the checklist we use on our own Is Unocoin safe page, and you should hold every platform to it, including us.

• How long has it been operating? A platform that has survived several market cycles and India's regulatory changes has a track record you can look up.
• Does it say where customer assets are held, and is there evidence? Be clear about the difference between a company's own statements and independent verification.
• Does it deduct 1% TDS and give you proper statements? A platform that skips TDS is not doing you a favour; it is leaving you exposed at tax time.
• Can you withdraw Bitcoin to a wallet you control? Test it with a small amount.
• Does anyone from the platform ever ask for your OTP, password, PAN or seed phrase in a chat, call or message? Real support never does.
• Does anyone promise sure-shot returns? Walk away.

Then protect yourself: turn on two-factor authentication, keep only what you are actively using on any platform, and learn how self-custody works.

Where Unocoin stands, plainly

Unocoin is registered with FIU-IND as a reporting entity under the PMLA, has operated since 2013, and was part of the Supreme Court case that overturned the RBI's banking ban in 2020. Unocoin states that 95% of assets are in cold storage with multi-signature wallets and regular security audits. Those cold-storage and audit figures are Unocoin's own statements; there is no independent public attestation of them on this site.

I am not neutral about Unocoin and I will not pretend to be. That is exactly why I would rather you check the list, run the checklist, and decide for yourself.

Keep reading

Sources

• Taxmann: S.O. 1072(E) brings VDAs under PMLA
• AZB Partners: PMLA obligations for VDA providers
• Tsaaro: S.O. 4877(E) designates FIU-IND
• Cryptopolitan: RBI to Finance committee, 54 providers (3 July 2026)
• Medianama: 25 offshore notices, 50 registered (Oct 2025)
• FIU-IND Binance order
• FIU-IND Bybit order
• Drishti IAS: PMLA obligations are activity-based
• Medianama: no dedicated crypto law
• IndiaBitcoin: Is Unocoin safe