The development follows Binance’s February announcement that it would delist Monero (XMR) and its finalization later that month. The announcements follow mounting pressure on privacy-focused cryptocurrency solutions. In fact, reports that privacy coins such as Monero, Zcash (ZEC) or Horizen (ZEN) were at risk of delisting were already circulating in early January.
Another case that has attracted the attention—and ire—of privacy activists are the legal repercussions faced by the developers behind decentralized cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. Mixers differ from privacy coins since they anonymize assets with public transactions such as Bitcoin. Privacy coins like Monero instead ensure no third party can check the details of any transaction in the first place—eliminating the need for mixers in the first place.
Still, trustless decentralized mixers and privacy coins have in common that they are permissionless systems outside the control of their creators that prevent oversight from anyone—including governments. Despite this lack of control, Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev has been found guilty of money laundering by a Dutch court and given a five-year and four months-long prison sentence.