Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced that it will end support for its Monero (XMR) privacy token for customers based in Ireland and Belgium.
Kraken has posted a notice stating that it will suspend XMR trading and deposits starting May 10th. The exchange added that all margin trading positions must be closed by their deadline. If not, Kraken will automatically close the position.
The exchange also announced that it will permanently delist Monero from its platform on June 10th. This means that withdrawals of XMR tokens for users in Ireland and Belgium will be suspended on that day.
Kraken explained that users with XMR tokens remaining in their accounts after the deadline will have their balances automatically converted to Bitcoin (BTC).
The news follows the European Union's recent move to ban crypto asset service providers (CASPs) from offering accounts to anonymous users or using privacy-focused tokens like Monero. .
Meanwhile, the token price appears to be unaffected by new developments as it remains hovering around $132.35. According to CoinGecko, the token hit a 24-hour high of $136.59 and weekly high of $139.15.
In February, Binance announced that it would delist Monero, causing the token price to fall. On February 6th, the XMR token fell from $165 to a five-month low of $136 on Binance. On February 7th, the price fell further to $105, but quickly recovered the next day.
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Regulators around the world have been cracking down on privacy-focused tokens since 2018. Japan was the first to ban anonymity-enhanced tokens.
In 2020, South Korea's financial watchdog also began banning privacy coins from exchanges, and Australian exchanges began delisting privacy tokens due to regulatory updates.
On February 7, 2023, Dubai also announced guidelines prohibiting the issuance of anonymity-enhanced tokens and all virtual asset activities related to privacy coins.
Apart from Binance and Kraken, exchanges such as Huobi and OKX have also announced the delisting of Monero and other privacy-focused digital assets. Huobi delisted Monero on September 19, 2022 to comply with global regulations.
The token has been completely delisted from the OKX trading platform since January 5th. The exchange said the delisting was part of its efforts to “maintain a robust spot trading environment.” OKX also noted that this decision follows user feedback.
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