A plain guide to FIU-registered crypto providers.

The FIU register does not list every crypto service an Indian can use

Many platforms that offer crypto trading to Indian users are not on the FIU register at all. Some of them are based outside India and have never applied for registration. Others may have applied but not yet appeared on the list. The register is a record of providers that have completed a specific anti-money-laundering filing, not a directory of every service that works in India.

Using an unregistered platform does not automatically mean you are breaking the law. The legal obligation to register falls on the service provider, not on the individual user. But an unregistered provider may be less willing to respond to Indian legal requests, and you may have a harder time getting help if something goes wrong.

Before you sign up, check whether the platform appears on the FIU list. If it does not, ask the platform why. Some providers operate in a grey area, and their absence from the register can affect how your bank treats your transactions and how easily you can access your funds.

The tax on crypto is calculated on each trade, not on your net position

Many investors think they will be taxed only on their overall profit at the end of the year. That is not how the Indian crypto tax works. Each time you sell or trade a virtual digital asset, the gain on that specific transaction is calculated separately. You cannot net a loss on one coin against a gain on another.

This means you can have a net loss across all your crypto trades and still owe tax on the individual profitable trades. The tax applies to the difference between the sale price and the cost of acquisition for that particular unit. There is no provision to carry forward a loss to a future year.

If you trade frequently, you need to track the cost basis of every coin you sell. The tax is not based on the money you withdraw to your bank. It is based on each taxable event, even if the proceeds stay on the exchange. Missing this distinction is a common and costly mistake.

A bank freeze after a crypto trade is often reversed without a police case

When a bank freezes an account, the account holder usually assumes a criminal complaint has been filed. In many crypto-related freezes, the bank is acting on a request from a law enforcement agency that is investigating a fraud somewhere in the chain. The freeze is a precaution, not a charge.

The bank may not tell you which transaction triggered the freeze or which agency asked for it. You may have to write to the bank, ask for the details of the request, and then contact the agency directly. The process can take weeks or months, and the bank is not obliged to lift the freeze until the agency says so.

Keeping a clear record of your crypto trades can help you respond quickly. If you can show that you bought coins from a counterparty and paid by bank transfer, the agency may release your account. The freeze is not proof that you did anything wrong, but you will need to cooperate to get it lifted.

Self-custody of crypto removes exchange risk but creates a new kind of liability

When you hold your own private keys, you do not depend on an exchange to return your coins. That removes the risk of the exchange being hacked, freezing withdrawals, or going bankrupt. Many experienced users move coins to a personal wallet after buying them.

But self-custody also means you are the only person who can recover the coins. If you lose your seed phrase, no company can reset it for you. If you send coins to the wrong address, there is no way to reverse the transaction. If your computer or phone is compromised, a thief can take everything without any customer support to call.

The choice between an exchange and self-custody is not a choice between safe and unsafe. It is a choice about which risks you are willing to manage. The FIU register does not cover self-custody, because there is no service provider to register. The responsibility for security is entirely your own.

A deposit that fails can sit with the bank, not the exchange, for weeks

When an Indian bank account sends rupees to a crypto exchange, the bank and the exchange have separate systems for recording that payment. The exchange credits the user only after its own reconciliation picks up the transfer. If the bank's message is delayed or the exchange's payment gateway is busy, the money can leave the user's account without appearing in the exchange wallet. The user then holds a receipt from the bank but no balance on the exchange.

This gap is not a failure of FIU registration. A registered exchange can still have a slow or manual reconciliation process, especially during heavy trading hours or when a particular bank's UPI channel is congested. The user's recourse is to contact the exchange's support desk with the bank reference number and wait. In the meantime, the funds are neither usable for trading nor easily withdrawn.

The practical lesson is to keep the bank's transaction reference and the exact amount and time before contacting support. A screenshot of the bank statement is often the first thing a support agent asks for. Sending a small test deposit before a large one can also show whether the exchange's bank account details have changed, which happens without notice on some platforms.