Huobi delists Monero, Zcash and 5 more privacy coins due to regulatory concerns

Crypto exchange Huobi Global said it will delist seven privacy tokens in the coming week, citing broader regulatory scrutiny of such tokens. The company claimed it is complying with regulations in different countries and regions. Privacy tokens lost 0.42% in 24 hours following the news.

Spot and futures trading of the tokens was paused last Tuesday. The delisting of these tokens – Dash (DASH), Decred (DCR), Firo (FIRO), Monero (XMR), Verge (XVG), ZCash (ZEC), and Horizen (ZEN) – is scheduled on Sept 19.

“Huobi Global strictly complies with the compliance policies of every country and region and always endeavors to safeguard our users’ assets,” the exchange, which is one of the largest in world, said in a statement.

According to Huobi, the deposit service for DASH, DCR, FIRO, XMR, XVG, ZEC, and ZEN will cease at 08:00 UTC, on Monday, but the withdrawal service continues to function.

Huobi said the move was “in compliance with the latest financial regulations.”

Privacy coins are cryptocurrencies that preserve anonymity by obscuring the money flow across their networks. They make it difficult to work out who sent what to whom, which is helpful if you don’t want anyone see your financial activity.

Huobi didn’t specify what was the exact reason behind the action. The move comes after the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) listed crypto mixer Tornado Cash on its sanction list for laundering over $7 billion worth of crypto since 2019. 

The OFAC said that the smart contract helped North Korean hackers Lazarus Group launder $455 million of stolen crypto. Moreover, Tornado Cash reportedly helped launder over $96 million from the Harmony bridge heist as well as $7.8 million from the Nomad bridge hack.

A tracker of privacy tokens showed the sector lost 0.42% in the past 24 hours even as broader crypto markets were up during this time.