Kraken to delist Monero for clients registered in Europe

Kraken will delist Monero in the European Economic Area and halt all XMR trading and deposits due to regulatory changes.

US-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken will delist Monero (XMR) in the European Economic Area following regulatory changes.

Trading and deposits for XMR markets, including XMR/USD and XMR/EUR, will end at 15:00 UTC on October 31 for EEA-registered customers, Kraken said in its blog announcement. Open orders will be automatically closed at that time.

Kraken set December 31 as the deadline for XMR withdrawals, adding that all remaining XMR balances after this date will be converted to Bitcoin (BTC) at market rates and distributions will be completed by January 6, 2025.

The move comes amid increased regulatory scrutiny of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies that offer enhanced transaction anonymity, such as Monero. Kraken emphasized that this decision was not taken lightly, but that it was “committed to supporting the most comprehensive set of digital assets possible, consistent with our regulatory and compliance obligations.” In June, the exchange stopped supporting XMR for customers in Belgium and Ireland.

As privacy coins face increasing scrutiny, the delisting trend has also been echoed across major crypto exchanges, including Binance and OKX. MiCA legislation, which will come into force in December, along with new anti-money laundering rules, will force crypto service providers to stop supporting privacy-focused coins.

As Circle’s director of EU strategy and policy, Patrick Hansen, previously explained, the new AML regulations prohibit cryptoasset service providers from offering privacy coins and prohibit users from making commercial payments with tokens such as XMR.