Monero (CRYPTO: XMR), a digital currency known for its privacy features, is down 37% in a day following a Binance announcement that it will soon delist the cryptocurrency from its trading platform.
What Happened: According to Binance's statement on Feb. 6, Monero, along with Aragon (CRYPTO: ANT), Multichain (CRYPTO: MULTI), and Vai (CRYPTO: VAI), will be delisted from the exchange on Feb. 20, 2024.
Consequently, Binance will cease all trading pairs associated with Monero, which includes pairings with Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), Tether (CRYPTO: USDT), and Binance coin (CRYPTO: BNB).
The announcement further detailed that, following the cessation of trading, "All trade orders will be automatically removed after trading ceases in each respective trading pair." It also specified that after May 20, 2024, withdrawals of these tokens would not be supported.
Post delisting, Binance may convert the removed XMR tokens into stablecoins for users, though this is not a certainty. Binance clarified, "A separate notification will be made before the conversion where applicable, and the stablecoins will be credited to users' Binance accounts after the conversion."
The decision to remove XMR from Binance was influenced by several criteria, including the token's contribution to a robust and sustainable cryptocurrency ecosystem and concerns over unethical or fraudulent activities.
Binance also considered the responsiveness of the tokens to its periodic due diligence requests.
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Why It Matters: Following the delisting announcement, the value of Monero took a sharp downturn.
TradingView data shows that at 9:21 am UTC, the price of XMR fell to $136 on Binance, marking a nearly 19% loss in just a few hours.
Although there has been a slight recovery, with XMR priced at $140.30 at the time of reporting, these numbers represent lows not seen since mid-September 2023.
Binance's move to delist Monero is not an isolated event.
In late 2023, the cryptocurrency exchange OKX also announced its intention to delist Monero and another privacy-centric coin, Zcash (CRYPTO: ZEC), on Jan. 5, 2024.
Furthermore, Binance had previously planned to remove all privacy tokens in certain countries like France and Italy in May 2023 but reversed this decision in June 2023.
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