Monero Dips 7% As Kraken Says It Is Canceling XMR For European Customers

Privacy coin Monero is plunging, down nearly 7% in the past 24 hours after Kraken announced its delisting in Europe.

Kraken – one of the world's oldest crypto exchanges – has informed users that it will cancel Monero for customers in the European Economic Area (EEA) due to regulatory changes.

Trading and deposits of all Monero markets will cease on October 31st for EEA clients, and any open orders will be automatically closed. The last day to withdraw Monero is December 31, and after this date the remaining balances will be converted to Bitcoin (BTC) at the market price.

According to Kraken, we have no choice but to delist Monero (XMR) in the European Economic Area (EEA) due to regulatory changes at the conclusion of the exchange. “We did not make this decision lightly,” the announcement added.

The development follows Binance's February announcement that it will delist Monero (XMR) and complete it by the end of that month. The announcements follow growing pressure on privacy-focused encryption solutions. In fact, reports are circulating as early as January that privacy coins such as Monero, Zcash (ZEC) or Horizen (ZEN) are at risk of being delisted.

Another issue that has caught the attention of privacy advocates is the legal ramifications facing the developers behind Tornado Cash, a decentralized cryptocurrency mixer. Mixers differ from privacy coins because they don't anonymize assets like bitcoin in public transactions. Privacy coins like Monero instead ensure that no third party can verify the details of any transaction in the first place – eliminating the need for hashes in the first place.

Still, Trusted Decentralized Mixing and Privacy Coins are permissionless systems outside the control of their creators, denying control from anyone, including governments. Despite this lack of control, Tornado Cash developer Alexey Persev was convicted in a Dutch court of money laundering and sentenced to 5 years and 4 months in prison.

Officials said the developers have developed and deployed a smart contract-based privacy solution on the unregulated Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Despite the US Office of Foreign Assets Control allowing Tornado cash in 2022, it is still operating and has earned more than $1.9 billion in the first six months of 2024.

Many see it as a legal precedent for criminal prosecution of privacy software developers who fail to protect the system without violating its security and privacy features. Something that could have ramifications beyond the crypto industry.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.