Kraken Announces Monero Delisting in Europe

The American cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced its decision to delist the anonymous cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) for users from the European Economic Area (EEA). This decision was made to comply with local regulatory requirements and is related to the upcoming implementation of new EU cryptocurrency legislation.

Key Points:

• Delisting Date: Kraken will close trading and stop accepting deposits in XMR for European clients on October 31, 2024.
• Affected Trading Pairs: XMR/USD, XMR/EUR, XMR/BTC, and XMR/USDT will become unavailable.
• Market Impact: The XMR price fell by more than 10%, reaching $141 after the announcement.
• Actions for Users:
  • All open orders in XMR will be automatically closed on October 31.
  • Users are advised to withdraw their XMR assets by December 31, 2024.
  • After December 31, remaining XMR balances will be automatically converted to BTC at the market rate.
  • Converted bitcoins will be distributed among users by January 6, 2025.
• Reasons for Delisting: The decision is related to the upcoming implementation of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which prohibits virtual asset service providers from offering privacy coins such as XMR.

Kraken representatives stated: «We regularly review the crypto assets listed for trading on our platform to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. After careful consideration of the situation, we were left with no choice but to close XMR trading for European users. This decision was not easy for us.»

Industry Trend

Kraken’s actions are not an isolated case. Previously, the exchange had already removed XMR trading pairs in Ireland and Belgium. Last year, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, also delisted Monero in Belgium, which led to a drop in the coin’s price.