While Binance announced it would delist Monero (XMR) in February and completed the rollout later that month, the exchange has now announced the final steps to remove the privacy coin from its platform.
Binance announced in an Aug. 12 blog post that it will convert balances of 15 tokens, including XMR, to USD Coin (USDC) on Sept. 2, 2024. The conversion is expected to be completed by March 1, 2025, with the USDC being available in users' wallets.
The asset conversion rate will be determined based on the average exchange rate from September 2, 2024 to March 1, 2025, the announcement explained.
Affected assets, in addition to Monero, are Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Bitcoin Standard Hashrate Token (BTCST), Bitshares (BTS), District0x (DNT), Groestlcoin (GRS), Hegic (HEGIC), MobileCoin (MOB), Monetha (MTH), Multichain (MULTI), Navcoin (NAV), Sologenic (SOLO), Spartan Protocol (SPARTA), Symbol (XYM) and Tribe (TRIBE).
Incidentally, XMR appears unfazed by the final stages of the Binance delisting. At the time of writing, Monero is trading at $149.38, down 0.2% from the same time yesterday, according to data from CoinGecko.
But delisting a privacy coin like Monero from the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume certainly sets a worrying precedent, said Mykola Ciuszko, lead contributor at Web3Privacy Now.
“Binance is widening the gap between the true spirit of decentralization and regulated surveillance capitalism, misleading millions of people about the permissionless freedom that is the essence of Web3,” he said. Decryption“Basically, they turn out to be part of a surveillance apparatus.”
MobileCoin, like Monero, is a privacy-focused coin. It uses ring signatures to hide transactions, just like Monero works. Binance users will be able to withdraw their assets from the exchange by September 1, 2024.
Binance did not respond to a request for comment at the time of writing. Decryption.
Privacy coins are cryptocurrencies designed to provide greater transaction anonymity than standard cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin offer. They use various encryption techniques to hide transaction details such as addresses and amounts, making transactions extremely difficult to trace or associate with a specific individual.
While proponents claim these coins protect user privacy and bring cash-like anonymity to digital transactions, critics point out their potential for illicit use in areas such as ransomware payments and money laundering. Popular privacy coins include Monero, Zcash (ZEC) and Dash (DASH), each of which achieves anonymity in different ways.
However, these coins have faced regulatory scrutiny and possible bans in some jurisdictions, and some cryptocurrency exchanges have delisted them due to compliance concerns. Despite these challenges, privacy coins continue to gain popularity among users seeking increased financial privacy in the digital realm.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to add comment from Mykola Suisko.
Editor: Stacey Elliott.
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