Monero faces delisting from Binance, prompting price plunge

In a recent announcement, leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance revealed its decision to delist major privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) alongside several other tokens, including Aragon (ANT), Multichain (MULTI), and Vai (VAI), effective February 20, 2024. This move has triggered a significant decline in Monero’s value, with the cryptocurrency community closely monitoring the situation.

Binance’s delisting decision and its impact on Monero

Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, cited multiple factors behind its decision to delist Monero. These factors include assessing the cryptocurrency’s contribution to a healthy and sustainable crypto ecosystem, evidence of unethical or fraudulent conduct or negligence, and responsiveness to Binance’s periodic due diligence requests. This decision highlights the exchange’s commitment to maintaining its platform’s integrity and ensuring its users’ safety.

As a result of this delisting, Binance will remove all four trading pairs involving Monero, which include XMR/BTC, XMR/ETH, XMR/USDT, and XMR/BNB. The exchange clarified that all trade orders related to these pairs would be automatically removed after trading ceases in each respective pair. Furthermore, the withdrawal of these tokens will not be supported after May 20, 2024.

In an effort to mitigate potential disruption for Monero holders, Binance stated that after May 21, XMR may still be converted into stablecoins on behalf of users. However, the conversion is not guaranteed, and Binance will provide a separate notification before the conversion, if applicable. The stablecoins resulting from the conversion will be credited to users’ Binance accounts afterward.

Market reaction and Monero’s current state

The news of Monero’s impending delisting from Binance immediately impacted its price. Within a few hours of the announcement, XMR plummeted to a low of $136 on Binance, experiencing a rapid decline of nearly 19%. This steep drop brought Monero’s price to levels not seen since mid-September 2023.

However, Monero has exhibited some signs of recovery since the initial plunge, with XMR currently trading at $140.30 at the time of writing, according to TradingView data. The cryptocurrency market continues observing how the situation unfolds, and Monero enthusiasts closely monitor its price movements.

Binance is not the only exchange to have delisted Monero in recent times. In late 2023, another prominent cryptocurrency exchange, OKX, announced its decision to delist Monero, along with another privacy-focused coin, Zcash (ZEC), effective January 5, 2024. This trend raises questions about the future of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies on various exchanges and the regulatory challenges they may face.

It’s worth noting that Binance had previously announced plans to delist all privacy tokens in countries like France and Italy in May 2023, only to reverse its decision in June 2023, citing the need to align with regulatory requirements and user demands.

Potential implications for Binance

Some observers in the cryptocurrency community view Binance’s decision to delist Monero as a sign of the exchange’s evolving challenges. A cryptocurrency trader, John Brown, commented, “While bad for Monero, I mainly see this delisting as a sign of the slow demise of Binance.” 

Binance has faced increased scrutiny from global regulators, and its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to breaking anti-money laundering and sanctions laws in late 2023. Zhao is set to be sentenced on February 23, 2024, and could face up to 18 months in prison.

Binance’s legal and regulatory troubles have extended to its subsidiary, Binance.US, which reportedly faced a ban on operating in Florida and Alaska in late January, further adding to the exchange’s challenges on the regulatory front.