Monero hits 5-month low as Binance plans delisting

Major privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero has plummeted to multimonth lows amid Binance announcing the upcoming delisting of the token from its platform.

Binance will delist Monero (XMR) alongside other tokens like Aragon (ANT), Multichain (MULTI) and Vai (VAI) on Feb. 20, 2024, the exchange announced on Feb. 6.

As a result of the delisting, Binance will remove all four trading pairs involving Monero, including those trading against Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT) and Binance’s native coin, BNB (BNB).

“All trade orders will be automatically removed after trading ceases in each respective trading pair,” the announcement notes, noting that withdrawals of these tokens will not be supported after May 20, 2024.

The delisted XMR may still be converted into stablecoins on behalf of users after May 21, but the conversion “is not guaranteed,” Binance stated. “A separate notification will be made before the conversion where applicable, and the stablecoins will be credited to users’ Binance accounts after the conversion,” the firm added.

The decision to delist XMR is based on various factors, including “contribution to a healthy and sustainable crypto ecosystem,” “evidence of unethical or fraudulent conduct or negligence,” as well as responsiveness to Binance’s periodic due diligence requests and others.

The price of Monero quickly reacted to the delisting news, with the token seeing a sharp decline. At 9:21 am UTC, XMR plummeted to a low of $136 on Binance, losing nearly 19% of its value in just a couple of hours, according to data from TradingView.

The Monero price has slightly recovered since, with XMR trading at $140.30 at the time of writing, according to TradingView data.  Monero has touched lows not seen since mid-September 2023.

Binance isn’t the only exchange to delist Monero. In late 2023, crypto exchange OKX also said it would delist Monero and another privacy-focused coin, Zcash (ZEC), on Jan. 5, 2024.

Binance also previously announced plans to delist all privacy tokens in countries like France and Italy in May 2023 but eventually reversed its decision in June 2023.

According to some online commentators, the delisting could also be bad news for Binance.

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“While bad for Monero, I mainly see this delisting as a sign of the slow demise of Binance,” cryptocurrency trader John Brown wrote in an X post.

Monero dropped strongly on the delisting news from Binance.

While bad for Monero, I mainly see this delisting as a sign of the slow demise of Binance. They are now “so compliant” that they cannot choose anymore which assets to support.

— John Brown (@john_j_brown) February 6, 2024

Despite former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao pleading guilty in a United States court to breaking Anti-Money Laundering and sanctions laws in late 2023, the exchange has continued to face pressure from global regulators. In late January, reports suggested that Binance.US was banned from operating in Florida and Alaska.

Zhao — who failed to receive approval to travel to his home in the United Arab Emirates — is set to be sentenced in the U.S. on Feb. 23, 2024, and faces up to 18 months in prison.

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