After a 3-month suspension of trading five privacy coins (Horizen, Firo, Beam, Monero, and MobileCoin) in many European countries, Binance is now taking similar action in Belgium.
According to the exchange’s announcement, starting from September 21st, Binance customers residing in Belgium will no longer be able to trade four privacy coins, including:
1. Monero (XMR)
2. MobileCoin (MOB)
3. Firo (FIRO)
4. Horizen (ZEN)
It’s worth noting that even though Horizen had previously announced on June 28th that it would no longer be a privacy coin after an expected update in September, ZEN is still being delisted.
However, Binance’s move to delist privacy coins is happening as the exchange has to serve Belgian users through its branch in Poland. Consequently, the current regulations in Poland are also applied to Belgian users.
“While we always aim to support as many quality projects as possible, we must also adhere to local laws and regulations related to trading privacy coins.” – Binance spokesperson
Privacy coins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to provide transaction anonymity by implementing technologies that can obscure transaction details, making it challenging to trace the sender, receiver, and transaction amounts.
In recent times, the European Union has been actively addressing concerns related to money laundering in transactions involving privacy coins and is considering new regulations that might ban these coins.
Until the end of May 31st, the European Banking Authority published new draft guidance related to cryptocurrencies, stating that companies in the industry should monitor their users when they use privacy coins, as these actions pose a high risk of money laundering.
Seeing the strictness of legal authorities, Binance has announced that it will remove privacy coins from all markets where they are required to do so. In the past, South Korea, Japan, and Dubai (UAE) have also tightened regulations on these types of coins.