Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, has made an announcement regarding its support for the privacy token Monero (XMR) for customers in Ireland and Belgium. The exchange stated that it will cease trading and deposits for XMR starting from May 10. Kraken also mentioned that all margin trading positions must be closed before this deadline, otherwise, the exchange will close them automatically. Additionally, Kraken plans to fully delist Monero from its platform on June 10, which means that withdrawals of the XMR token for users in Ireland and Belgium will be halted on that date. The exchange explained that any remaining XMR tokens in user accounts after the deadline will be automatically converted into Bitcoin (BTC).
This announcement comes in response to recent developments in the European Union that prohibit crypto asset service providers (CASPs) from offering accounts to anonymous users or using privacy-focused tokens like Monero. Despite this news, the price of the Monero token remains relatively stable at around $132.35, with a 24-hour high of $136.59 and a weekly high of $139.15, according to CoinGecko.
It is worth noting that Binance had previously announced its decision to delist Monero in February, which caused a decline in the token’s price. On February 6, the XMR token dropped from $165 to a five-month low of $136 on Binance. The price further plummeted to $105 on February 7 but quickly recovered the following day.
Since 2018, regulators around the world have been cracking down on privacy-focused tokens. Japan was the first country to initiate a ban on anonymity-enhanced tokens, followed by South Korea’s financial watchdog in 2020, and Australian exchanges due to regulatory updates. Dubai also released guidelines on February 7, 2023, prohibiting the issuance of anonymity-enhanced tokens and all virtual asset activities related to privacy coins.
In addition to Binance and Kraken, other exchanges such as Huobi and OKX have also announced the delisting of Monero and other privacy-focused digital assets. Huobi delisted Monero on September 19, 2022, in order to comply with global regulations. OKX, on the other hand, fully delisted the token from its trading platform on January 5, stating that it was part of their efforts to maintain a robust spot trading environment, following feedback from users.
In related news, the founder of Synthetix, a decentralized finance platform, expressed the opinion that it is the DeFi sector that is problematic, not the overall market.