US-based cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex has announced that it will be delisting privacy coins ZCash (ZEC), Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH) effective from January 15 onwards. This is a surprising decision made after the exchange dropped XRP last week, following other major exchanges that operate in the US in doing so, as privacy coins have not yet been specifically targeted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) just yet.
โAfter the markets are removed, Bittrex generally seeks to provide users up to 30 days to withdraw any delisted tokens, but in certain instances the withdrawal period may be shortened. Users should withdraw any tokens before the posted withdrawal deadline,โ the announcement reads.
However, Bittrexโs decision to remove contentious privacy coins from its exchange is a logical one, considering that US financial regulators and lawmakers have been criticizing the use of privacy coins over the past year, while also working with many other blockchain security firms such as CipherTrace or Chainalysis to develop and deploy tracking solutions that will render XMR, DASH and ZEC trades transparent to regulatory supervision.
While possibly premature, crypto regulations in the US are becoming increasingly stringent, with many proposed changes being discussed in Congress, and it is only a matter of time for regulatory ire to fully be trained on privacy coins, even though the SECโs attention will largely be focused on its battle with Ripple Inc. and the XRP token in the next two quarters.
Since the announcement, XMR, DASH and ZEC have seen 10%-15% losses in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.
