India's Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided five Bengaluru-based cryptocurrency platforms—Transak, Carret, Xpat, Onramp.money, and Onmeta—as part of a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) investigation into suspected cross-border transaction violations totaling more than ₹2,500 crore, according to reporting from Coinpedia.
The probe centers on allegations that stablecoins, particularly USDT (trading near $0.999), were used to route funds through foreign exchanges and shell entities in breach of India's foreign exchange rules. The ED's move signals continued enforcement pressure on crypto-to-fiat and fiat-to-crypto on-ramps, which occupy a legal gray zone in India's still-evolving regulatory framework.
The five firms targeted operate at the intersection where Indian users convert rupees to digital assets or withdraw crypto holdings back to local currency. Transak and Onramp.money are established platforms in this on-ramp category. The inclusion of Carret, Xpat, and Onmeta suggests the ED is casting a wider net across smaller or newer entrants in the space.
FEMA violations can trigger civil penalties and, depending on severity and intent, criminal prosecution. The ED typically issues Prosecution Information Reports (PIRs) to the financial intelligence unit and relevant law enforcement when it detects structured patterns of unauthorized cross-border fund movement. The raids represent document collection and witness testimony gathering at an investigative stage.
India has not passed a standalone crypto law despite years of discussion in parliament. The RBI has maintained a strict anti-crypto stance and discouraged banks from servicing crypto transactions. The ED's enforcement focus on stablecoin flows and unregulated on-ramps reflects a strategy of tightening the on-and-off ramps rather than direct asset bans. This approach creates operational risk for platforms that lack explicit regulatory approval or banking relationships.
The ₹2,500 crore quantum suggests the ED has identified a series of transactions rather than a single violation. On-ramp operators typically argue they are money changers or payment processors rather than crypto exchanges subject to stricter rules. The ED's framing of stablecoin flows as FEMA violations contests that distinction and asserts that moving fiat across borders via crypto triggers exchange controls regardless of the intermediary's license category.