Cryptocurrency exchange WazirX’s bank accounts unfrozen by ED, says company

WazirX has been permitted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to use its bank accounts which were frozen after the agency raided its parent company last month. The cryptocurrency exchange said that ED had allowed it to use the bank accounts after it cooperated with the investigators by providing all the necessary details, information and documents needed of the accused companies which used its platform.

ED has unfrozen the bank accounts of WazirX due to active cooperation extended by it and active anti-money laundering (AML) checks which resulted in the blocking of suspicious accounts, the company said. India’s largest crypto exchange WazirX has over 12 million users.

“WazirX is now in a position to continue its banking operations as usual," it added.

ED raids on WazirX parent

The central agency last month searched the premises of WazirX parent firm Zanmai Lab and froze bank assets worth Rs 64.67 crore for “assisting accused instant loan App companies in laundering of fraud money via purchase and transfer of virtual crypto assets".

The ED is probing 16 fintech companies and Instant loan apps, some of which happened to use the WazirX platform.

WazirX clarified that it is not associated with any of the accused entities which are subject of ED probe. It is “carrying out the KYC/AML checks despite having no legal obligation to do so”, the company said.

"WazirX is like any other intermediary whose platform may have been misused. After an in-depth internal investigation, WazirX noticed that most of the users whose information was sought by ED were already identified as suspicious by WazirX internally and were already blocked in 2020-2021," the company added.

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(With inputs from IANS)