Monero terminated in Italy, along with other privacy coins

[DavideBaldini]

I received this email notification from Binance, it appears that privacy currencies are being terminated throughout Italy. Translated from Italian:

Dear Binancian,

We are sending you this email to formally inform you that, due to local regulatory requirements, Binance is unable to offer privacy coins that do not allow transaction monitoring in Italy. Starting from June 26, 2023, Binance users residing in Italy will no longer be able to purchase or trade the following privacy coins on our platform:

DCR, DASH, ZEC, ZEN, PIVX, NAV, SCRT, XVG, FIRO, BEAM, XMR, MOB

Please note the following timing for the above-mentioned privacy coins:

On 06-26-2023:

All spot trading operations and deposits related to the aforementioned privacy coins will be blocked. All open Spot orders will be automatically closed. Cryptocurrency withdrawals for privacy coins will remain available.
Conversion and Earn operations will be limited to decrease-only mode. Decrease-only mode allows you to sell or close positions, but limits buying and opening new positions for the aforementioned privacy coins.

On 09-26-2023: All Loan positions will be automatically closed.

On 09-29-2023: All Flexible EARN positions will be closed.

On 10-26-2023: Selling via Convert will be blocked. Cryptocurrency withdrawals for privacy coins remain available.

We continue to commit ourselves to the long-term development of our ecosystem and we will continue to invest in the development of the blockchain and digital asset industry. We take this opportunity to thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Team Binance

[Little Mouse]

It was supposed to be followed by all the countries. I remember after the 2018 significant altcoin season, there were countries popping up which was talking more against privacy coins. Well, it's not really possible to regulate privacy coins because of the nature of the txs. Maybe privacy coins will have an end due to regulation. It's going to be followed everywhere and I doubt with such regulation, people would simply use privacy coins to hide their financial activity.

[DavideBaldini]

People reported that France and Poland have enacted the same regulation: https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/13wkueu/monero_and_all_other_privacy_coins_are_banned_in/

[examplens]

It was supposed to be followed by all the countries. I remember after the 2018 significant altcoin season, there were countries popping up which was talking more against privacy coins. Well, it's not really possible to regulate privacy coins because of the nature of the txs. Maybe privacy coins will have an end due to regulation. It's going to be followed everywhere and I doubt with such regulation, people would simply use privacy coins to hide their financial activity.

I remember these announcements of regulation by the FATF and the expected exclusion of privacy currencies from some exchanges. I'm surprised it's somehow extended 4+ years. Limiting use according to certain areas is perhaps the least harmful way, which gives hope to privacy coins that they can survive until some more favourable regulation for them.

From Oct. 22, 2019
https://cointelegraph.com/news/fatfs-regulations-to-push-criminals-to-privacy-coins-ciphertrace-ceo

[JeromeTash]

Some few years back, there was pressure from regulators for centralized exchanges to delist privacy coins. it's amazing that they have listed on those exchanges for that long.
It's not all gloom and doom for the folks in Italy as there are some peer to peer and no KYC exchanges that will offer trading of Privacy coins especially Monero despite the restrictions

One such place to get monero friendly exchanges is kycnot.me and https://www.getmonero.org/community/merchants/

[Darker45]

This is expected. This has been the talk of the town for years. Monero must have already caught the attention of the authorities ever since the Silk Road days. That was a long time ago. Years later, the IRS itself also offered more than half a million dollars as bounty to whoever cracks Monero. That was a desperate move and a humiliating admission that even the most powerful agencies could be helpless in dealing with privacy coins.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Monero will have to be banned. It was just a matter of time. More countries will certainly follow.

But no big deal. After all, Monero isn't really tailored for the likes of Binance and other centralized exchanges that are all too willing to lick dirty asses for money. It has its own unique functions. It is to privacy coins as Bitcoin is to cryptocurrencies.

[tabas]

IIRC, it started with South Korea when they've forced their local exchanges there to delist Monero. Well, it's not new that these authorities want these exchanges to remove Monero and probably other privacy coins because they've got some the same reasons for privacy concerns and the use that it's being made through illegal transactions and being untraceable. So, this is like a wave that's not going to stop and if these big exchanges like Binance is being forced to do it in order for themselves to protect their business, the others will do the same once they're asked or required to do.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Well, it's not really possible to regulate privacy coins because of the nature of the txs.

Sure, it's impossible to stop the use of coins like the ones mentioned in OP's announcement, if you eliminate the markets for those coins one by one until they're all gone, who's really going to use them?  As a practical matter, none of those privacy coins are used to buy anything (except maybe on the dark market, but I doubt even there) so with no way to even trade them, I seriously doubt people would want to own them--with perhaps XMR being the exception.  Their community seems pretty hardcore.

This is just Binance, thankfully, even though they're one of the biggest exchanges worldwide.  It's still unfortunate that eliminating cryptocurrencies that offer more privacy than bitcoin seems to be the trend among exchanges.  I did notice that Kucoin no longer lists PIVX, though I'm not sure about any of the others.

[Little Mouse]

As a practical matter, none of those privacy coins are used to buy anything (except maybe on the dark market, but I doubt even there) so with no way to even trade them, I seriously doubt people would want to own them--with perhaps XMR being the exception.  Their community seems pretty hardcore.

Bitcoin is widely accepted everywhere including the dark market but Monero is also not so little. According to an analysis by HollandFintech, Bitcoin is accepted by 91% darknet marketplaces (accepting at least 1 cryptocurrencies), 79% accept Monero, 21% accept Litecoin and there are few more coins too. 69% of the darknet marketplaces accept 2 or more cryptocurrencies. Though Bitcoin acceptance is quite high, Monero is widely accepted in dark market. Of course, because people are still using them.

I did notice that Kucoin no longer lists PIVX, though I'm not sure about any of the others.

XMR is still there in Kucoin. ZEC is also there. But it's jsut matter of time I think, Kucoin will also follow the same. Kucoin is more open to work with regulation but good thing is they aren't as shady as Binance.

[noorman0]

-snip-
This is just Binance, thankfully, even though they're one of the biggest exchanges worldwide. 

I think binance is the first exchange in the "experimental" phase of the new local requirements because it's the biggest entities (as they also do ChatGPT for privacy concerns) which is good to see the impact. However, almost all the top exchanges that I know of are listing these privacy coins that eventually they will slowly become the object of the same operational requirements.

[NotATether]

You will always be able to exchange Monero with other cryptocurrencies using most of these decentralized exchanges, it's just that the CEX's don't want to deal with them anymore (or are forced not to). The same goes for some other privacy coins such as Dash and ZCash, though you might have a hard time finding a ZCash exchanger.

Still, it won't do anything to stop crime, as criminals will just convert monero using OTC trades to other currencies and then cash them out at exchanges. It doesn't matter if you take down every XMR exchange site for that matter.

[Husires]

It is only some time before all centralized exchanges stop accepting privacy coins. You will not be able to deposit or withdraw. decentralized one will be your only option if you want to enjoy some privacy.
The funny thing is that many currencies, which used to take privacy as their slogan, have tried to stop that.
Does anyone know what happens to currencies that have privacy-enhancing features like Litecoin or Mimblewimble? I didn't find it on that list

[rby]

Well, it's not really possible to regulate privacy coins because of the nature of the txs.

Sure, it's impossible to stop the use of coins like the ones mentioned in OP's announcement, if you eliminate the markets for those coins one by one until they're all gone, who's really going to use them?  As a practical matter, none of those privacy coins are used to buy anything (except maybe on the dark market, but I doubt even there) so with no way to even trade them, I seriously doubt people would want to own them--with perhaps XMR being the exception.  Their community seems pretty hardcore.

I am not sure that the privacy coins are going into extinction any soon. By the way, the privacy coins are just like every other cryptocurrency running on the blockchain, just that they provide additional layer of privacy. As the government go against them, they device means to remain in circulation. This could be because they have shady industries and persons willing to use them at all cost just like the case of mixers.
Concerning the use case of these privacy coins, as you rightly mentioned, these coins aren't used to buy the early morning coffee or everyday groceries. They are mostly used for shady deals such as the ones that happen in the darknet, money laundry, and the most scary to the government is arms deals relating to espionage.

This is just Binance, thankfully, even though they're one of the biggest exchanges worldwide.  It's still unfortunate that eliminating cryptocurrencies that offer more privacy than bitcoin seems to be the trend among exchanges.  I did notice that Kucoin no longer lists PIVX, though I'm not sure about any of the others.

The privacy coins should also understand that they don't have future with the CEX. Decentralized exchanges could be their safe haven. Once a country bans the use of a particular privacy coin and exchanges in such country delist the coin, the price of such coin is  always impacted negatively and that is the smoothest means for a privacy coin project to fail.

[Smartprofit]

Well, it's not really possible to regulate privacy coins because of the nature of the txs.

Sure, it's impossible to stop the use of coins like the ones mentioned in OP's announcement, if you eliminate the markets for those coins one by one until they're all gone, who's really going to use them?  As a practical matter, none of those privacy coins are used to buy anything (except maybe on the dark market, but I doubt even there) so with no way to even trade them, I seriously doubt people would want to own them--with perhaps XMR being the exception.  Their community seems pretty hardcore.

This is just Binance, thankfully, even though they're one of the biggest exchanges worldwide.  It's still unfortunate that eliminating cryptocurrencies that offer more privacy than bitcoin seems to be the trend among exchanges.  I did notice that Kucoin no longer lists PIVX, though I'm not sure about any of the others.

Monero is a very important coin for the entire crypto industry.  

In essence, it is an alternative to bitcoin.  Many of the ideas that the legendary Satoshi Nakamoto did not have time to implement in the Bitcoin code were implemented in the Monero code (by the developer Riccardo Spagni and other enthusiasts of this coin).  

Let's imagine a situation where bitcoin is destroyed (assume that the governments of all countries manage to unite their efforts for this).

In this case, people will need a new coin with a PoW consensus algorithm (a coin that will be able to successfully function in the face of persecution by government regulators).

Monero (with its high standards of anonymity and privacy) is likely to be such a coin.  

This is one of the reasons why many governments avoid direct aggressive attack on Bitcoin (the XMR alternative is much worse for them).

[Lucius]

~snip~

I can't imagine a situation in which Bitcoin would be destroyed (what exactly does destroyed mean?), and that some altcoin could then come as an adequate replacement that people would accept to the same extent as Bitcoin. Every decentralized cryptocurrency in the true sense of the word is actually a target, and if you just remove it from all CEXs, all that will remain is some trivial thing that will be used by a very small number of people.

The so-called privacy coins are something that will gradually disappear in all countries where there is strict crypto regulation. In my country, an official ban was not even needed, because all local CEXs just received a recommendation to remove these coins from their offer, and they simply did that a few years ago.

[m2017]

This is expected. This has been the talk of the town for years. Monero must have already caught the attention of the authorities ever since the Silk Road days. That was a long time ago. Years later, the IRS itself also offered more than half a million dollars as bounty to whoever cracks Monero. That was a desperate move and a humiliating admission that even the most powerful agencies could be helpless in dealing with privacy coins.

Of course, it is expected. Governments will ban everything they can't control. Monero just falls into this category.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Monero will have to be banned. It was just a matter of time. More countries will certainly follow.

I can't help but agree. Italy, which banned xmr, will be followed by other countries. Surprisingly, this process has just begun. How long have they been looking for ways to influence the Binance.

But no big deal. After all, Monero isn't really tailored for the likes of Binance and other centralized exchanges that are all too willing to lick dirty asses for money. It has its own unique functions. It is to privacy coins as Bitcoin is to cryptocurrencies.

Yeah, there seems to be nothing critical and there are practically no levers of influence on monero. People will be able to use xmr directly- p2p, as before, without intermediary exchanges like Binance. No matter how difficult it is for monero users, it is impossible to completely ban it.

[dkbit98]

I received this email notification from Binance, it appears that privacy currencies are being terminated throughout Italy. Translated from Italian

This is wrong information, they are not terminated anywhere and this is totally different from delisting from centralized exchanges, there are a bunch of options to exchange coins using dex exchanges like Bisq or other p2p trading options.

There is obviously a global agenda against privacy in all areas of life and they are preparing for CBDC crap, but people can still use whatever they want.

[Kavelj22]

I was not surprised that Binance took this step, especially with the increasing demands to impose more control measures on user activities. Some countries that are keen to monitor the financial activities of their citizens will not hesitate to formally request this from the Binance administration, which will not refuse in order not to lose an important user base. All this is a possible result of US policies towards trading platforms after what happened last year with the collapse of the FTX platform.

What caught my attention in the list of currencies is that there are no other currencies among them that have a high degree of privacy, such as the Grin currency, which was developed according to the famous mimblewimble protocol, like which we find the BEAM currency that uses the same protocol, but the BEAM currency has been canceled while Grin is still listed . Even the Litecoin currency, it had announced its merger with the mimblewimble protocol in order to become completely secure and maintain privacy, despite this, Litecoin is still listed on Binance.

[avp2306]

Expect that this will happen to those privacy coins since this could be use to any other illegal activities and government of Italy is just doing a good counter measure regarding on those issues. I guess this termination or banning will not stop here since in future we might gonna see more like this especially that government want transparency and want to minimize the money laundering issues also maybe with scamming's happening.

[vv181]

What caught my attention in the list of currencies is that there are no other currencies among them that have a high degree of privacy, such as the Grin currency, which was developed according to the famous mimblewimble protocol, like which we find the BEAM currency that uses the same protocol, but the BEAM currency has been canceled while Grin is still listed . Even the Litecoin currency, it had announced its merger with the mimblewimble protocol in order to become completely secure and maintain privacy, despite this, Litecoin is still listed on Binance.

That is because Litecoin MibleWimble implementation is opt-in, it is completely different from say like Monero or any other cryptocurrency where the implementation of the privacy mechanism is by-default.

Binance has known that blocks Litecoin's MimbleWimble transactions, take a look at https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/notice-on-deposits-and-withdrawals-of-litecoin-ltc-utilizing-mimblewimble-extension-blocks-mweb-61d4510b1ada4ba78b5384e8c2d3527c.

It is pretty clear the only reason they still list Litecoin is because of the nature of the privacy features implementations. Certainly, as a centralized body, they won't take a single bet to accept a strict and strong cryptocurrency that contains privacy features for any usage. They trying at their best to imitate any usage of transactions with a strong privacy technologies.