Cryptocurrency exchange BitBay will delist privacy-centric cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) due to money laundering concerns.
The exchange announced the decision on Nov. 25, noting that the delisting will take place on Feb. 19, 2020. The exchange explained its decision
“Monero (XMR) can selectively utilize anonymity features among projects. This feature of XMR is a subject to end of transaction support. The decision was made to block the possibility of money laundering and inflow from external networks.”
On Nov. 29, the exchange will already stop accepting XMR deposits. Due to the upcoming Monero blockchain fork, XMR withdrawals will not be possible from Nov. 29 to Dec. 5. BitBay will end trading support on Feb. 19, after which it will cancel all buy and sell orders. The exchange asked that all Monero holders withdraw their XMR by May 20, 2020.
Poland-based BitBay is the 90th largest cryptocurrency exchange by 24-hour trade volume, according to data from Coin360. At press time the exchange has a daily trade volume of just over $20.7 million.
Problems for privacy-centric cryptos
BitBay explained that, as a regulated exchange, it must follow market standards and regulations regarding consumer protection and reporting practices. As such, it noted that Monero and other privacy coins had already been delisted from several cryptocurrency exchanges.
In September, major cryptocurrency exchange OKEx delisted a slew of privacy-oriented coins including Monero, Dash (DASH), Zcash (ZEC), Horizen (ZEN) and Super Bitcoin (SBTC). The exchange said that the coins fell afoul of new guidelines set out by the Financial Action Task Force.
As Cointelegraph illustrated in a dedicated analysis, the overall climate in the cryptocurrency industry is increasingly unfriendly towards privacy-centric projects such as Monero. In a recent example, the German Federal Ministry of Finance expressed concerns about the rising use of privacy tokens due to their association with criminal activities and difficulties in tracking them.