The delisting comes at a tumultuous time for Binance which is heavily focused on gaining the favor of regulators around the world. The exchange's former CEO, Chanpeng Zhao, faces investigation by the United States and has been subjected to travel restrictions, despite his residency in the UAE.
The coin has been on Binance’s kill list for a while. Back in 2023, the exchange announced it would be delisting XMR and other privacy coins in the European Union to comply with regulatory requirements. However, the exchange backed off on its decision a month later.
Monero, a cryptocurrency prized for its privacy-centric features that make transactions untraceable, has increasingly found itself under the scrutiny of regulators. These authorities argue the coin's anonymity provisions make it a vehicle for financing illicit activities.
The largest exchanges that still support XMR right now are Kraken international, KuCoin and Bitfinex.
Binance has refrained from providing a detailed explanation for Monero's removal.
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“At Binance, we periodically review each digital asset we list to ensure that it continues to meet a high level of standard and industry requirements,” the exchange says in the delisting announcement, “When a coin or token no longer meets these standards or the industry landscape changes, we conduct a more in-depth review and potentially delist it.”
This turn of events is not new in the Monero community. Other exchanges have already delisted the coin citing legal reasons. Kraken did the same in 2021, delisting the coin in the UK. Huobi delisted XMR in 2022, and in late 2023 OKX announced its decision to take the coin out of its supported trading pairs on January 4, 2024.
Earlier this week, an article in Finnish publication MTV Uutiset claimed that Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (KRP) had succeeded in tracking transactions made using the privacy preserving cryptocurrency Monero.
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As part of the delisting process, all trade orders for Monero will be automatically canceled post-trading cessation. Binance has hinted at the possibility of converting delisted tokens into stablecoins for users after May 21, 2024, though this remains unconfirmed. In preparation for the delisting, Binance removed XMR from its "earn" program yesterday and suspended loans for the cryptocurrency the day before.
But even the delisting has not been an easy ride for Monero holders. Users have reported issues with withdrawing their coins from Binance, despite the deadline for doing so not yet being reached. “What possible reason does Binance have to keep any XMR in a cold wallet at this point? With hours to go until delisting? None,” one user argued on X, “they want you to have to sell XMR instead of withdrawing it. Scumbags.”
Binance will delist #Monero in less than 12 hours. @binance also has Monero withdrawals halted for the past several hours citing "low hot wallet balance"
Why would they not have ALL of their XMR in hot wallet knowing their delisting schedule?
As Decrypt reported, Monero experienced a dramatic 36% drop on the day of the announcement, followed by a period of sideways trading. Yesterday, traders sold their coins in anticipation of the delisting, dropping the price of XMR from $121.8 to $113.1. However, day traders may be buying the dip, because today the coin has recovered 6.4%, climbing up to its current $120.45 and almost erasing yesterday’s losses.
Image: Tradingview
Indicators present a decidedly bearish outlook, particularly influenced by the February 6 crash. The coin is challenging the resistance set by its average price over the last 10 days, a barrier that has proven insurmountable in the past week. Additionally, the coin is heavily oversold, meaning there's some fear in the market and traders are selling more than what buyers are willing to buy (a Relative Strenght Index or RSI of 39 means that out of every 100 traders, 39 want to buy the coin, and the rest wants to sell it), and the bearish trend is still in play.
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