Crypto exchange Kraken has made the decision to wind down its support for the privacy token Monero (XMR) for customers in Ireland and Belgium. In an announcement, Kraken stated that trading and deposits for XMR will cease on May 10, and all margin trading positions must be closed before that date. Failure to do so will result in Kraken automatically closing the positions. Additionally, Kraken plans to fully delist Monero from its platform on June 10, meaning that withdrawals for the XMR token will be halted for users in Ireland and Belgium. Any remaining XMR tokens in user accounts after the deadline will be automatically converted into Bitcoin (BTC).
This decision comes in response to recent developments in the European Union, which has prohibited crypto asset service providers (CASPs) from offering accounts to anonymous users or utilizing privacy-focused tokens like Monero. Despite this news, the price of the token has remained relatively stable, hovering around $132.35. According to CoinGecko, Monero recorded 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. In February, Binance announced its own delisting of Monero, causing the token’s price to drop. However, it quickly recovered the following day. The crackdown on privacy-focused tokens began in 2018, with Japan being the first country to initiate a ban. Since then, regulators in South Korea, Australia, and Dubai have also taken measures to ban or delist privacy coins.
In addition to Binance and Kraken, exchanges such as Huobi and OKX have also delisted Monero and other privacy-focused digital assets. Huobi delisted Monero in September 2022 in order to comply with global regulations, while OKX removed the token from its trading platform in January 2023. The decision to delist Monero was made by OKX to maintain a strong spot trading environment, based on feedback from its users.
Overall, the delisting of Monero by Kraken reflects the increasing regulatory scrutiny on privacy tokens and the efforts of crypto exchanges to comply with these regulations.