India’s Enforcement Directorate is investigating “several” crypto cases for money-laundering schemes and has seized $115.5 million to date in such crimes, the Ministry of Finance said, the latest in a series of crackdown by the authorities on the nascent space that is already reeling from the tremulous market conditions.

The Indian crime fighting agency has also arrested five individuals in crimes abetted by cryptocurrency and in the past sent a show cause notice to local exchange WazirX and its directors for crypto transactions exceeding $338 million, the ministry said.

The disclosure comes at a time when India is pushing ahead with rules to better scrutinize the activities of cryptocurrency firms, even as until now New Delhi has resisted formulating a blanket law to regulate the virtual digital assets.

Last week, the Ministry of Finance said (PDF) that crypto will be governed by anti-money laundering rules in the South Asian market. Under the new change, crypto exchanges, NFT providers and custody wallet operators will be responsible for monitoring suspicious financial activities.

(By Manish Singh)