Kraken is taking significant steps to comply with Europe's stricter crypto regulations and has announced that it will delist Monero by the end of this month.
in blog posta US-based cryptocurrency exchange, announced that all trades and deposits in the XMR market, specifically XMR/USD and XMR/EUR, will be closed on October 31st for users registered in the European Economic Area (EEA). announced that it would end at 15:00 UTC. At that point, open orders will be automatically closed.
Kraken has set an XMR withdrawal deadline of December 31st, and any remaining XMR balances after that date will be converted to Bitcoin (BTC) based on the current market rate, with distribution scheduled for January 6, 2025. Complete by date.
The move is in line with increased regulatory scrutiny of privacy coins such as Monero, which offer greater transactional anonymity. Kraken emphasized that this choice was not made lightly.
“Kraken remains committed to pursuing its mission and supporting the most comprehensive set of digital assets possible, consistent with regulatory and compliance obligations,” the exchange said in a statement.
Europe's digital asset framework, the Markets in Cryptoassets Act (MiCA), came into force in June 2023. Its implementation was divided into two stages. The first phase will be implemented in June 2024, and the second phase is scheduled for December 2024. Phase 2 is a prerequisite for implementing a comprehensive MiCA system. The next phase will also include guidelines for crypto asset service providers (CASPs).
In January, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued Draft document on cryptoassets qualifying as financial instruments under Article 16. Final guidelines for this are expected to be published in December. Some exchanges had already changed their service offerings prior to the deployment of the MiCA framework. For example, bitstamp pulled Euro-based stablecoin EURT in June.
Previously, on June 10, the Kraken Production discontinued XMR functionality for users in Belgium and Ireland. This decision was taken in accordance with the European Union. implemented Anti-money laundering (AML). The crypto community viewed the EU's actions as an attempt to outlaw self-custodial wallets and crypto trading.
The new AML standard prohibits consumers from using tokens such as XMR to make merchant payments, and crypto asset service providers from offering privacy coins, as was previously the case. outlined By Patrick Hansen, Director of Policy and Strategy at EU Circle.
Several other countries have similarly introduced restrictions on privacy-focused tokens. 2018, Japan limited A token that enhances anonymity. In 2020, South Korea banned privacy coins from trading platforms, Australian exchange launched Delisting Privacy tokens with new rules. dubai I quit All operations related to privacy coins, including the issuance of anonymity-enhancing tokens on February 7, 2023.
Monero Price reacts to Kraken’s XMR decision
Source: Brave New Coin market capitalization table
XMR price broke through the uptrend line support on September 24th and fell approximately 14.5% within a week of Kraken's Monero European delisting announcement. sauce: brave new coin
Monero (XMR) fell on Wednesday after falling more than 6% the previous day. XMR fell more than 10% on Tuesday following news of Kraken delisting its privacy coin in Europe, adding to bearish momentum.
Additionally, Monero's negative prognosis is further supported by Coinglass' predictions. Long to short ratiocorresponds to 0.9. When this ratio is below 1, it means pessimistic market sentiment as more traders expect the asset price to fall. As of Thursday, XMR was trading around $139.18, still below the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level of $152.83.
Despite Monero's EU delisting, unfavorable price movements, and dire on-chain statistics, the bearish outlook will be reversed if Monero's daily candlestick crosses $152.83 and above the 200-day EMA of $156.45. It will be. This situation could push Monero price higher and retest the next daily resistance near $180.79.
