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- Binance, the prominent cryptocurrency exchange, plans to delist 12 privacy coins, including Monero and Zcash, in France, Italy, Poland, and Spain.
- The move is driven by regulatory requirements, particularly the newly signed Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation in the European Union.
Binance, a leading crypto exchange, is set to impose trading constraints on certain anonymity-focused cryptocurrencies, colloquially referred to as privacy coins, in various global regions. In a user-targeted email, Binance notified customers residing in France, Italy, Poland, and Spain about these forthcoming restrictions, attributing this decision to localized regulatory mandates. The implementation is slated for June 26.
The communication specifically listed 12 privacy coins that will no longer be tradable on the platform: Decred (DCR), Dash (DASH), Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), Horizon (ZEN), PIVX, Navcoin (NAV), Secret (SCRT), Firo (FIRO), BEAM, MobileCoin (MOB), and Verge (XVG).
This initiative follows the European Union (EU) formally enacting the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation into law. A salient part of this legislation, Article 68, dictates that trading platforms must refrain from supporting crypto assets boasting inherent anonymization capabilities. The only exception is if these token holders and their transaction history can be distinctly identified by authorized service providers.
The MiCA regulation is anticipated to be in effect after its publication in the EU’s official journal within the month.
Repercussions of Binance’s decision to delist these coins have reverberated through the privacy coin entities. The Secret Network, for example, vocally disputed the notion of its native token, SCRT, being classified as a “privacy coin”. It emphasized that SCRT serves as a platform for developing decentralized applications designed for data protection.
As stated by Secret Network,
“It’s one of the only blockchains that can support GDPR-type regulations. We’ve clarified this to Binance, and their team is re-evaluating making SCRT available to EU users.”
Conversely, Electric Coin Co, the organization behind Zcash, posited that Binance’s delisting of certain cryptocurrencies presents a
“direct and imminent threat to the privacy and security of individuals, families, businesses, communities, and entire nations.”
The impacts of these regulatory adjustments, therefore, extend beyond trading activity, indicating broader implications for the privacy and security of blockchain technology users.
