Bittrex Will Delist Three Privacy Coins

The asymmetrical push-back against privacy coins has been going on for a while now.

Although many crypto enthusiasts happily use them for legitimate reasons, the risk assessment measures, Know Your Customer (KYC), and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures that must be put in place in order to allow trading them have pushed many smaller exchanges to delist them.

Pressure By Traditional Banks 

On the 15th of January, trading Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), and Dash (DASH) will be disabled for trading on Bittrex.

An official statement made last Tuesday notified Bittrex users that trading in these privacy coins will end on their website on the 15th of January — however, the tokens in users’ wallets will be kept around for 30 more days in order to allow users to withdraw their coins.

“After the markets are removed, Bittrex generally seeks to provide users up to 30 days to withdraw any delisted tokens, but in certain instances the withdrawal period may be shortened. Users should withdraw any tokens before the posted withdrawal deadline.”

As Bittrex is a company with a strong focus on the American market, it’s possible that the sudden announcement comes in the wake of the US Congress potentially looking into measures aimed at privacy coins, coupled with pressure from traditional banking institutions. 

The announcement caused the going rate of the tokens to drop abruptly —  namely by 14.44% for XMR, and by 12.28% for ZEC at the time this article was written.

In response, Dash has stated that they consider the privacy coin label a misnomer and that they would be happy to meet with the Bittrex Compliance team in an effort to avoid being delisted.

Although the risk of keeping privacy coin trading up and running may prove to be too high for smaller exchanges, the tentative meeting between Dash and Bittrex might be a watershed moment in establishing the regulatory status of privacy coins going forward.