Korea’s Upbit to Delist Privacy Coins

Another exchange is delisting privacy coins.

In a statement, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange UpBit said that it will be ending support for six privacy coins, including Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), and ZCASH (ZEC). Trading support for those coins will end on September 30, while deposits are no longer allowed.

UpBit said that the decision to pull those coins was “to block the possibility of money laundering and inflow from external networks.”

The exchange’s decision comes less than a week after OKEx’s South Korean unit decided to end transaction support for Monero, Dash, ZCASH, Horizen (ZEN), and Super Bitcoin (SBTC). OKEx Korea cited “violations” to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF’s) much-debated “travel rule” as the reason for the delistings.

The travel rule requires exchanges to collect and send customer information during transactions. This includes the originator’s name, account number, and physical location, as well as the beneficiary’s name and account number. Privacy coins, however, can conceal the originator and beneficiary during transactions, hence the current aversion towards them.

Photo: Paul Downey