Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, has recently announced that it will be gradually phasing out support for the Monero (XMR) privacy token for customers in Ireland and Belgium. In a notice posted by Kraken, it stated that trading and deposits for XMR will be halted from May 10th. The exchange also mentioned that all margin trading positions must be closed before the deadline, or else Kraken will automatically close them. Furthermore, Kraken revealed that it will fully delist Monero from its platform on June 10th, meaning that withdrawals for the XMR token will be suspended for users in Ireland and Belgium on that date. Kraken clarified that any remaining XMR tokens in user accounts after the deadline will be automatically converted into Bitcoin (BTC).
The decision by Kraken follows recent developments in the European Union, where crypto asset service providers (CASPs) have been prohibited from offering accounts to anonymous users or supporting privacy-focused tokens like Monero.
Interestingly, the announcement by Kraken has had little impact on the price of the Monero token, which currently stands at around $132.35. According to CoinGecko, the token reached a 24-hour high of $136.59 and a weekly high of $139.15.
This is not the first time that Monero has faced delisting by a major cryptocurrency exchange. In February, Binance made a similar decision, resulting in a decrease in the token’s price. On February 6th, the XMR token dropped from $165 to a five-month low of $136 on Binance. However, the price quickly recovered the next day, reaching $105.
Regulators worldwide have been cracking down on privacy-focused tokens since 2018. Japan was one of the first countries to initiate a ban on anonymity-enhanced tokens. South Korea’s financial watchdog followed suit in 2020, banning privacy coins from exchanges. Australian exchanges have also started delisting privacy tokens due to regulatory updates. Additionally, Dubai released guidelines on February 7th, 2023, prohibiting the issuance of anonymity-enhanced tokens and any virtual asset activities related to privacy coins.
Apart from Binance and Kraken, other exchanges like Huobi and OKX have also delisted Monero and other privacy-focused digital assets. Huobi delisted Monero on September 19th, 2022, in order to comply with global regulations. OKX fully delisted the token from its trading platform on January 5th, as part of its efforts to maintain a robust spot trading environment, following feedback from its users.