Kraken set to delist Monero in Ireland and Belgium, convert remaining balances to bitcoin

Kraken is set to delist the privacy coin Monero XMR +0.058% from the platform for customers in Ireland and Belgium on June 10.

In a notice posted earlier today, the crypto exchange clarified that all XMR trading and deposits will halt from May 10 and that all margin positions should be closed by this date to avoid forced closure. 

Kraken stated that XMR withdrawals will then be halted on June 10, at which time any remaining XMR balance will be automatically converted into bitcoin.

Kraken’s decision follows Binance’s delisting of Monero from its main platform in February after placing “monitoring tags” on several privacy coins in January. Binance previously moved to delist privacy coins in Belgium in September 2023.

Rival crypto exchange OKX also delisted Monero, alongside privacy-focused coins Zcash and Dash, in January.

New EU anti-money laundering regulations

The announcement comes amid the new EU Anti Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR), which is set to pass final, purely formal, approval in the European Parliament and the Council of the EU this month. It would then enter application three years after publication, around summer 2027.

AMLR prohibits CASPs (crypto-asset service providers) from providing accounts for privacy coins, though such practice is already widespread. The EU’s markets in Crypto-Assets legislation (MiCA), which came into force in June 2023 and will be fully applicable from Dec. 30, 2024, already prohibits crypto assets with built-in anonymization.

Monero has traded flat over the past 24 hours, down around 1% to $132.60, according to The Block’s price page .

XMR/USD. Image: The Block/TradingView .