The Directorate of Enforcement has removed the freeze on the bank accounts of WazirX, the cryptocurrency exchange said in a blog post on Monday.
“Due to the active cooperation extended by WazirX and active Anti-money laundering (AML) checks that led to the blocking of suspicious accounts, ED has unfrozen the bank accounts of WazirX. WazirX is now in a position to continue its banking operations as usual,” reads the blog post.
In August, the federal agency that probes money laundering said it had conducted searches on one of the directors of Zanmai Lab Pvt Ltd, which operates WazirX, and issued an order to freeze its bank balances totalling ₹64. 67 crore.
The action came as part of the ED’s investigation of 16 fintech companies and instant loan apps.
The agency is probing at least ten cryptocurrency exchanges for allegedly laundering more than ₹1,000 crore identified as proceeds of crime from firms accused in the instant loan apps case. Most of them have a China link, reported Economic Times.
“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 blocked in 2020-2021,” the blog reads.
In its note in August, the ED had alleged that the exchange “actively” assisted around 16 fintech companies under investigation on charges of money laundering to divert their proceeds of crime using the crypto route.
In the blog post, the company said WazirX had no association with any of the accused fintech and instant loan app entities. The company said it was carrying out the know-your-customer/AML checks despite having no legal obligation to do so.
“WazirX is like any other intermediary whose platform may have been misused,” it said.