invezz.com
A US cryptocurrency exchange based in Colorado, ShapeShift, recently decided to delist the privacy coin Zcash (ZEC). ZEC is actually the third coin to be delisted from the exchange recently, with the other two being Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH) — all privacy coins.
All three coins were removed rather quietly, without much attention being brought to the move.
Privacy coins are losing their place in the crypto world
According to the exchange’s chief legal officer, Veronica McGregor, the coins were removed due to regulatory concerns. McGregor confirmed that ShapeShift does not work with these cryptocurrencies anymore, which is not really surprising to the majority in the crypto industry.
Privacy coins, as the name suggests, allows users to perform private transactions that are extremely difficult (and sometimes impossible) to trace. As such, privacy coins have always been a thorn in the authorities’ side, as they can be used for anything, from money laundering, terrorism financing, black market usage, blackmail, and many other purposes.
For this reason, the governments around the world dislike them, and they put regulated exchanges in a position where they must delist such coins to continue operating in compliance with regulations, and avoid bad reputation and ties to illegal activities.
ShapeShift trying to be regulatory compliant
Veronica McGregor further added that all three coins were delisted at the same time and for the same reason. The most notable removal, however, is that of ZEC, as the exchange invested in one of ZEC’s creators back in 2016. It listed the coin very soon after that investment.
Now, however, the exchange is after regulatory approval, turning away from its rebellious nature which it used to have in prior years. It started in 2018, when it requested that users go through the KYC procedure and verify their identities. Now, it continues down this path of seeking approval from the authorities.
With plenty of coins like Bitcoin, which are transparent when it comes to their transactions — there seems to be less and less place for privacy coins, which enable true privacy, and the regulators continue to push for their total removal from trading platforms.