In an email quoted by Reddit users, Kraken, the world’s eighth largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, announced that it would retire privacy coin Monero (XMR) in compliance with UK regulations. The platform will cease all XMR trading activities, set XMR wallets to withdrawal only, and force liquidation of any XMR margin positions existing after November 26.
Through advanced cryptography, privacy coins like Monero hide participants’ public wallet addresses and payment amounts when their transactions appear on the blockchain, making it unlikely, in the context of technology. current, that forensic entities such as Chainalytics can digitally track the identities of the parties that carry out the transactions.
The development of privacy coins like XMR has been a controversial topic. His supporters claim that provide users with greater personal privacy than cryptocurrencies with universally visible ledgers, such as Bitcoin (BTC), knowing that the addresses of the public wallets and the transactions of the individuals cannot be crossed with the information of knowledge of the client stored in the exchanges to pierce the veil of their identity. However, critics claim that the untraceable nature of privacy coins makes their adoption ideal for criminals, for example for use in drug trafficking, tax evasion or money laundering operations.
As a result, privacy coins face scrutiny from cryptocurrency exchanges around the world. Last year, Coinbase declined to list XMR, citing regulatory issues. In early January, Bittrex retired XMR, as well as major privacy coins Zcash (ZEC) and Dash. Riccardo Spagni, a former head of XMR, was also arrested in the United States in July at the request of the South African government for alleged crimes of fraud in that country between 2009 and 2011. He has since been released, but the judicial process is ongoing.
Despite the growing backlash from centralized financial institutions and administrative bodies against privacy coins, they have continued to gain traction among cryptocurrency users. According to CoinGecko, the total market capitalization of all privacy coins now stands at almost $ 15 billion.
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