India freezes more Bitcoins in money laundering scam involving Binance wallets

India’s financial crime fighting agency has frozen 150.22 Bitcoins worth US$2.5 million, after searches on wallets or user IDs of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation against mobile gaming application E-Nuggets. 

See related article: Crypto a rising currency of choice for drug smugglers in India

Fast facts

• The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) investigation revealed that over 300 accounts were used for money laundering, the agency said in a statement on Friday.

• The E-Nuggets app was created to deceive the general public of a significant amount of money, according to the ED.

• The agency had launched the investigation against E-Nuggets and its founder after authorities in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata filed a complaint in February 2021. 

• Various state police and Indian government agencies have been conducting raids and investigations into crypto-related scams over the last few months. 

• Crypto scams across the world have been on the rise this year, with over US$3 billion stolen across at least 125 hacks so far, according to Chainalysis. 

See related article:  India police launches blockchain-based complaint portal on Polygon