Binance to delist privacy tokens in France, Italy, Spain and Poland

Binance, a major exchange, is set to remove all privacy tokens from its platform in countries such as France and Italy, resulting in a decrease in the privacy of cryptocurrency in Europe.

As of June 26, Binance customers in France, Italy, Poland, and Spain will no longer be able to trade privacy tokens such as Monero (XMR) or Zcash (ZEC).

A representative from Binance informed Cointelegraph that twelve distinct coins are now subject to new limitations. These digital assets consist of Decred (DCR), Dash (DASH), ZEC, Horizen (ZEN), PIVX (PIVX), Navcoin (NAV), Secret (SCRT), Verge (XVG), Firo (FIRO), Beam (BEAM), XMR and MobileCoin (MOB).

“In order to maintain our ability to provide services to the greatest number of users, we strive to support as many quality projects as possible, while also adhering to local laws and regulations concerning the trading of privacy coins,” declared a representative of Binance.

In an email to its French customers, Binance announced that it is unable to provide enhanced anonymity crypto assets (CAE) in several European countries due to local regulatory requirements.

The Monero community has expressed strong disapproval of the ‘Mordinals’ due to worries about privacy.

Unlike Bitcoin (BTC) which is a commonly known cryptocurrency, tokens such as Monero and Zcash that focus on privacy are created to make blockchain transactions more difficult to trace in order to enhance user privacy.

Governments globally have been actively resisting the utilization of privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies and other crypto privacy instruments, citing worries about Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing.

In September 2022, Huobi, a major crypto exchange, discontinued services for seven privacy coins, including Monero, due to regulatory pressures. Earlier, the US authorities had imposed sanctions on the major crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

The announcement has been made as various governments around the world are implementing stringent Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations set forth by the Financial Action Task Force, otherwise known as the Travel Rule. An important part of this is the mandate to provide regulators with specific customer information relating to cryptocurrency transactions.

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