Cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex has announced that it will be delisting privacy coins Monero, ZCash and Dash midway through January.
The exchange did not provide any reasoning behind the delisting of the three tokens in its official announcement other than noting that it would cease providing trading pairs on January 15.
Cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex has announced that it will be delisting privacy coins Monero, ZCash and Dash midway through January.
The exchange did not provide any reasoning behind the delisting of the three tokens in its official announcement other than noting that it would cease providing trading pairs on January 15.
#Bittrex Customers:
The $XMR, $ZEC, and $DASH markets will be removed on Friday, January 15th at 23:00 UTC.
Details: https://t.co/8qAdjuwryJ
— Bittrex (@BittrexExchange) January 1, 2021
As per the release, Bittrex usually allows users up to 30 days to withdraw any delisted tokens that are no longer tradeable on the exchange but also noted that this period could be shortened. The exchange also encouraged users to carry out withdrawals before the deadline in order to avoid any problems that could be outside of the exchange’s control.
The following trading pairs will cease to be available to Bittrex users from January 15 onwards:
- BTC-XMR, ETH-XMR, USDT-XMR
- BTC-ZEC, ETH-ZEC, USDT-ZEC, USD-ZEC
- BTC-DASH, ETH-DASH, USDT-DASH, USD-DASH
Regulatory concerns could be a factor
Privacy coins have been under increasing scrutiny from regulators and law enforcement across the world for their part in facilitating anonymous transactions that could be linked to criminal activity and other nefarious means.
Monero in particular is solely a privacy coin which is incredibly difficult, if not nearly impossible, for a third party to determine the sender or receiver of a Monero transaction, or the amount that was sent.
In October 2020, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) awarded a lucrative, $625000 contract to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis for tracing tools focused on privacy coin Monero. Alongside Texas-based forensic data analysis firm Integra FEC, the two companies have been tasked with developing a pilot solution that will assist the IRS in tracing cryptocurrencies.
A month later, cryptocurrency analytics firm CipherTrace announced that it had filed two patents for technology capable of tracing transactions for XMR. While the patents may have been filed, industry experts have cast aspersions on any claims that companies are able to trace Monero transactions.
