Kraken to delist Monero for clients registered in Europe

Kraken will delist Monero in the European Economic Area, halting all XMR trading and deposits due to regulatory changes.

U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken will delist Monero (XMR) in the European Economic Area following regulatory shifts.

In a blog announcement, Kraken said that trading and deposits for XMR markets, including XMR/USD and XMR/EUR, will cease on Oct. 31 at 15:00 PM UTC for clients registered in the EEA. Open orders will automatically close at that time.

Kraken has set Dec. 31 as the deadline for XMR withdrawals, adding that any XMR balances remaining after this date will be converted to Bitcoin (BTC) at market rates, with distributions finalized by Jan. 6, 2025.

The move comes amid increasing regulatory scrutiny of privacy coins like Monero, which offer enhanced transaction anonymity. Kraken emphasized that while this decision was not made lightly, it remains “committed to supporting the most comprehensive set of digital assets possible, in alignment with our regulatory and compliance obligations.” In June, the exchange ceased XMR support for customers in Belgium and Ireland.

The delisting trend has been echoed across major crypto exchanges, including Binance and OKX, as privacy coins face increasing scrutiny. The MiCA legislation, which will take effect in December, along with new anti-money laundering rules, is forcing crypto service providers to stop supporting privacy-focused coins.

As Circle’s EU strategy and policy director Patrick Hansen explained earlier, the new AML regulations prohibit crypto-asset service providers from offering privacy coins and users from making merchant payments with tokens like XMR.