Kraken to delist Monero for clients registered in Europe

As a seasoned crypto investor with a decade of experience navigating the digital asset landscape, I can’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu as yet another exchange decides to delist Monero (XMR). Kraken’s decision to halt XMR trading and deposits in the European Economic Area due to regulatory changes is unfortunately all too familiar.


Kraken is removing Monero (XMR) from its platform within the European Economic Area, effectively ending all trading and deposit activities related to it. This decision stems from recent regulatory updates.

The American crypto trading platform, Kraken, has announced that it will no longer support Monero (XMR) within the European Economic Area due to changes in regulations.

In their recent blog post, Kraken has announced that trading and deposit services for XMR markets (such as XMR/USD and XMR/EUR) will no longer be available starting October 31st at 3:00 PM UTC for clients residing within the European Economic Area (EEA). All open orders in these markets will automatically close at that time.

Kraken has announced that all XMR withdrawals must be completed by December 31st. Any XMR balances left over after this date will automatically be exchanged for Bitcoin (BTC) at the current market rate, with the final distribution scheduled for January 6th, 2025.

The move comes amid increasing regulatory scrutiny of privacy coins like Monero, which offer enhanced transaction anonymity. Kraken emphasized that while this decision was not made lightly, it remains “committed to supporting the most comprehensive set of digital assets possible, in alignment with our regulatory and compliance obligations.” In June, the exchange ceased XMR support for customers in Belgium and Ireland.

The delisting trend has been echoed across major crypto exchanges, including Binance and OKX, as privacy coins face increasing scrutiny. The MiCA legislation, which will take effect in December, along with new anti-money laundering rules, is forcing crypto service providers to stop supporting privacy-focused coins.

In my own words, as a crypto investor, I’ve learned recently that due to updated Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations, platforms providing crypto services can no longer offer privacy coins or facilitate transactions using tokens such as Monero (XMR), for merchant payments, as explained earlier by Circle’s EU Strategy and Policy Director, Patrick Hansen.

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2024-10-02 11:40