BitBay Drops Monero Over Money Laundering Concerns
- Estonia-based BitBay will stop all XMR deposits to its platform on 29 November, and will completely delist the coin on 19 February, 2020.
- Due to an upcoming Monero blockchain fork, withdrawals of XMR will be unavailable between 29 November and 5 December.
Monero logo on black background. ThatTech Guru
Another cryptocurrency exchange, this time in Eastern Europe, is delisting the privacy-focused Monero (XMR) coin over money laundering concerns.
On Monday, Estonia-based BitBay announced that it will stop accepting XMR deposits as of 29 November, and that the digital asset will no longer be tradeable on its platform starting 19 February, 2020.
The exchange further stated that XMR withdrawals will be temporarily suspended between 29 November and 5 December, due to an upcoming Monero blockchain fork, and that all users must withdraw their remaining XMR by 20 May, 2020.
Similarly to other exchanges, BitBay said that removing Monero was due to its privacy features, which allow it to jumble up small groups of transactions to obfuscate individuals’ identities.
The company explained that, as a regulated exchange, it has to follow strict market standards and regulations when it comes to consumer protection and reporting practices.
BitBay’s announcement stated:
“The decision was made to block the possibility of money laundering and inflow from external networks. Monero (and other cryptocurrencies with this specification) has been already delisted on other fiat-crypto exchanges for the same reason. As a licenced exchange, BitBay has to follow the market standards. Compliance with market standards and regulations allows us to provide our clients with legal security and convenience of using the exchange, with the participation of a friendly banking system and the availability of payment operators.”
Other trading platforms have also been delisting Monero, and similar privacy-focused tokens. Last month, major cryptocurrency exchange OKEx Korea dropped a number of privacy-oriented coins, such as Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), Zcash (ZEC), Horizen (ZEN) and Super Bitcoin (SBTC).
A few days later, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange UPbit also followed suit and dropped its support for six such privacy-focused tokens, citing the requirements listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) guidance as the main reason.
- The U.S. Department of Justice worked together with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Treasury Department, and French authorities to take down the laundering operation.
- Crypto Twitter, however, was not impressed with the “major international cryptocurrency enforcement action” against the little known platform.
U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C, 10 January, 2012. Diego M. Radzinschi/The National Law Journal
- The Metropolitan Police have seized $160 million worth of cryptocurrencies in the country’s largest AML confiscation ever.
- The Met’s Economic Crime Command wants to prevent money laundering using crypto and is lobbying for tougher laws.
- The “Crackonosh” malware was found hidden in cracked versions of popular games such as NBA 2K19, GTA V, and Far Cry 5.
- Active since 2018, the malware has drained over $2 million in XMR from users and affected around 220,000 computers.