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A Northern European digital asset exchange is to remove the privacy-focused monero cryptocurrency to align with international anti-money laundering standards.
BitBay, headquartered in Estonia, announced Monday that Monero (XML) will no longer be tradable as of February 19, 2020. However, the cryptocurrency exchange will stop deposits of XML starting this Friday, November 29 and temporarily block withdrawals. starting Friday. as of December 5, around the time of a planned monero hard fork.
All users must retire any remaining XML by May 20, 2020, according to the notice.
Explaining the move, BitBay said Monero was removed from the list due to its privacy features. Cryptocurrency uses a technology called ring signatures that mixes small clusters of transactions to obfuscate the identities of individuals.
“The decision has been made to block the possibility of money laundering and influx from external networks,” the company said, adding that other cryptocurrency exchanges have abandoned Monero out of the same concern.
“Being a licensed exchange, BitBay has to follow market standards. Compliance with market standards and regulations allows us to provide our customers with the legal security and convenience of using the exchange, with the participation of a friendly banking system and the availability of payment operators, “said BitBay.
As mentioned, monero’s privacy protection has led to other trading platforms discontinuing support in recent months. For example, OKEx Korea ditched XML, as well as horizen (ZEN) and super bitcoin (SBTC), in October. He said he was currently reviewing a decision to remove zcash and dash as well.
Other privacy coins have also been considered too risky by some exchanges. Coinbase ditched zcash from its UK platform in August. The move was likely a compliance push related to building a new banking relationship after being abandoned by Barclays.
The flurry of revocations has been developing since the global money laundering supervisory body, the Financial Action Task Force, released an international guide to cryptocurrencies in July.
