On Tuesday, February 20th, Binance officially delisted Monero from its platform. Initially announced on February 10th, the decision marks the end of the availability of the XMR token on the crypto exchange.
The delisting comes at a tumultuous time for the largest crypto exchange in the world in terms of trading volume.
The challenges
Binance is currently trying to gain the favor of regulatory bodies all over the world. Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of the exchange, is facing an investigation by the United States.
Even though he is a resident of the UAE, the exchange’s founder has been subjected to travel restrictions.
Monero has been on the kill list of the crypto exchange for quite some time. It was first in 2023 that Binance had announced delisting Monero and several other privacy coins.
This applied to customers in the European Union, as the exchange had been trying to comply with regulatory requirements.
However, a month later, Binance had changed its mind and opted to not delist Monero and other privacy coins.
Monero
Renowned for its privacy-centric features, Monero is popular amongst users who want to keep their transactions untraceable.
Therefore, it has found itself under the scrutiny of regulators repeatedly. According to authorities, the anonymity provisions of the coin make it a vehicle for conducting illicit activities.
Nonetheless, Monero is still available on some large crypto exchanges, which include Bitfinex, KuCoin, and Kraken International.
Binance has not provided a detailed explanation behind the delisting of Monero on its platform, even though it did issue a statement.
In the delisting announcement, Binance said that they periodically review every digital asset listed on the platform to ensure it meets a high level of industry and standard requirements.
It said that if a token does not meet the said standards, or there is a change in the industry landscape, they do a more in-depth review to make a delisting decision.
The events
This turn of events is not something new for the Monero community. Many other exchanges have already delisted the token due to legal reasons.
In 2021, Kraken had also delisted Monero in the United Kingdom. In 2022, Huobi followed suit and OKX also announced in 2023 that it was removing Monero from its supported trading pairs.
This went into effect from January 4th, 2024. The delisting process involves the cancelation of all trade orders for Monero after trading cessation.
There had been hints from Binance that the Monero tokens might be converted into stablecoins after May 21st, but no confirmation was given.
In light of the delisting, Binance removed the token from its ‘earn’ program and also suspended loans for Monero.
However, the delisting has not been that easy for Monero holders, as many have reported issues with withdrawing their tokens, even though the deadline has not been reached as yet.
This has made many Binance users angry, as they took to X to express their displeasure at not being able to withdraw their XMR tokens.
On the day of the announcement from Binance, Monero experienced a 36% drop in its valuation, and then sideways trading occurred.