- The regulatory crackdown is a major blow to Monero, the leading privacy coin.
- Kraken announced that Monero is withdrawing from the platform’s EEA services.
- Kraken’s European customers will be able to withdraw their XMR until the end of 2024.
Monero (XMR), the leading privacy cryptocurrency, is being shaken by a whirlwind of legal changes regarding digital assets. Recently, Kraken, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, announced the imminent delisting of Monero from the European Economic Area (EEA).
XMR, a favorite of cryptocurrency enthusiasts for its untraceability, fell below the historically sensitive support level of $150 on October 1, 2024. The subsequent selling action reduced Monero’s global market capitalization by $280 million after Kraken’s exchange posted the news on its website. From $2.84 billion to $2.56 billion in less than 24 hours.
According to Kraken’s support hub, the popular exchange had no choice but to delist Monero and even told customers that Kraken’s staff “did not take this decision lightly” while remaining committed to providing an “exceptional trading experience” for EEA customers. I convinced you.
Kraken’s XMR delisting timeline is as follows:
First, Kraken will deactivate all XMR trading pairs at 3:00 PM UTC on October 31, 2024. Affected pairs are XMR/USD, XMR/EUR, XMR/BTC, and XMR/USDT. All remaining XMR orders will be canceled and funds will be returned to the customer’s wallet.
EEA customers will have two months from this deadline to withdraw their tokens from Kraken. XMR coins remaining in EEA resident accounts at 3:00 PM UTC on December 31, 2024 will automatically be converted to Bitcoin (BTC) at the current exchange rate.
On January 6, 2025, Kraken staff will return converted XMR to BTC to EEA customers who fail to withdraw by the deadline. This follows a similar compliance-driven process as Binance’s Monero delisting in February 2024.
What’s next for Monero?
Following Kraken’s announcement of the delisting of XMR, Monero fell to a three-month low, repeating a similar pattern to February 2024. XMR’s unexpected delisting from Binance caused it to plummet from $165 to $104.7, its lowest XMR point on a yearly basis.
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts argue that due to the hidden nature of Monero, alternative cryptocurrencies will continue to exist as long as non-KYC cryptocurrency exchanges exist. “Regardless of whether this price holds or falls below $1, we best believe whales will use this technology to spread the wealth.” Specified XMR holder Claus.
In some cases, XMR was never intended to be traded on major centralized exchanges (CEXs). Crypto enthusiast Sylvain Saurel exclaimed that Monero’s situation would be “perfect” if all major compliant exchanges removed XMR.
“This goes against the whole purpose of Monero.” Saurel sees XMR as proof that even blockchain monitoring services like Chainalytic cannot crack Monero’s secrets, adding that the focus is on the ability of cryptocurrency traders to leave no trace on private blockchains.
On the flipside
- These changes do not apply to customers in the United States due to different regulatory approaches.
- The European Union will host MiCA, a new regulatory framework that will be fully launched in 2025.
- The regulatory framework frowns on privacy chains and implies an outright ban on privacy coins.
Why This Matters
Regulators have criticized privacy coins and decentralized crypto mixers because Privacy Chain hinders regulators’ ability to conduct regulatory oversight.
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