Various cryptocurrency exchanges continue their war against privacy coins. Some governments around the world have taken exception to the currencies providing more anonymity and privacy than Bitcoin ever will. As a result, UpBit has confirmed it will remove all trading pairs which fall under this category. A worrisome development, although it seems unlikely too much will change for these markets.
Regulation in South Korea
It is not uncommon to see trading platforms delist certain currencies every now and then. It is pertinent for these companies to get the most bang for the buck regarding the resources they provide. Additionally, exchange operators have to adhere to very strict guidelines imposed upon them by their local government. More often than not, those rules force companies to make tough and unpopular decisions. In the case of upBit, there isn’t too much they can do about the current demands.
For the South Korean exchange, adhering to the FATF is the number one priority. This organization regulates financial service providers regarding anti-money laundering protection. Additionally, a new commissioner was appointed for the FSC, the Financial Services Commission. Combined, they are seen as a joint task force which seeks to regulate all financial aspects of South Korea, either for better or worse. For cryptocurrency exchanges, it forces them to abide by those organizations’ guidelines at all times, even if they don’t necessarily agree with them.
The Coins to be Removed
Anyone who has kept close tabs on cryptocurrency regulation in Asia may have noticed a peculiar trend. Governments genuinely oppose privacy and anonymity-oriented cryptocurrencies. This trend has become apparent several months ago and is now seemingly spreading to other regions across Asia. In South Korea, it forces exchanges to delist Monero, Dash, ZCash, Haven, BitTube, and PIVX. All of those currencies are considered to be a threat regarding money laundering when using cryptocurrencies.
While this particular “law” isn’t overly popular in South Korea, it isn’t something that will be changed either. Especially with the new FSC commissioner at the helm, it seems likely to assume a further crackdown on these types of currencies will occur fairly soon. That in itself would be rather interesting to watch, albeit it could also spell trouble for these altcoins. Until recently, getting listed on a South Korean exchange was the main objective for these projects. Now that they are getting removed, a very troublesome shift lies ahead.
No big Volume Loss
Although a delisting of altcoins can be problematic, it seems unlikely that much will change for these particular projects. UpBit has never generated much trading volume for any of the pairs mentioned. ZCash is the one with the most volume over the past few days, although the $450,607 in trades won’t make much of a difference. Haven Protocol and Moner are further down the rankings, further confirming South Koreans using this trading platform never showed much interest in those pairs to begin with.
The bigger problem is how other trading service providers will respond. Stories involving Monero, Dash, and others getting delisted have become fairly common. As such, the Western exchanges may start to rethink their position on these particular assets as well. If that were to happen, the altcoins mentioned above could find themselves in a rather unfavorable position altogether.
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