Monero (XMR), a leading privacy-focused cryptocurrency, has experienced a significant drop in price following Binance's announcement of its upcoming delisting from the platform. Binance is set to delist Monero, along with other tokens like Aragon (ANT), Multichain (MULTI), and Vai (VAI), on February 20, 2024.
As a result of the delisting, Binance will remove all trading pairs involving Monero, including those against Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, and Binance's native coin, BNB. The exchange noted that all trade orders would be automatically removed after trading ceases in each respective trading pair, and withdrawals of these tokens will not be supported after May 20, 2024.
Binance also mentioned the possibility of converting the delisted XMR into stablecoins on behalf of users after May 21, though this conversion is not guaranteed. The exchange plans to provide a separate notification before any conversion takes place, with stablecoins credited to users' Binance accounts afterward.
The decision to delist Monero was influenced by several factors, including its contribution to a healthy and sustainable crypto ecosystem, evidence of unethical or fraudulent conduct, and responsiveness to Binance's due diligence requests.
The news of Monero's delisting had an immediate impact on its price, causing it to plummet nearly 19% to $136 on Binance. Although it has slightly recovered to $140.30 at the time of writing, Monero is trading at levels not seen since September 2023.
Binance isn't the only exchange to delist Monero, as OKX also removed Monero and another privacy-focused coin, Zcash, in early 2024. Some industry observers view this delisting as a potential indicator of challenges faced by Binance, given its ongoing regulatory issues and former CEO Changpeng Zhao's legal troubles.
Despite the delisting, Monero continues to be a prominent privacy coin in the cryptocurrency market, valued for its focus on user privacy and anonymity.
Monero dropped strongly on the delisting news from Binance.
— John Brown (@john_j_brown) February 6, 2024
While bad for Monero, I mainly see this delisting as a sign of the slow demise of Binance. They are now "so compliant" that they cannot choose anymore which assets to support.
