Monero (XMR), a leading privacy-focused cryptocurrency, has just affirmed its resolve to uphold privacy and confidentiality. The network’s recent vow comes following Binance’s announcement of its upcoming delisting from the platform.

Launched in April 2014, Monero is an open-source, privacy-oriented cryptocurrency. It is renowned for the anonymity of users via privacy-enhancing technologies like ring signatures, stealth addresses, and ring confidential transactions (RingCT).

Monero’s blockchain is intentionally configured to be opaque making transaction details like the identity of senders and recipients, and the amount of every transaction, anonymous by disguising the addresses used by participants.

As such, it is not popular nor welcomed by regulators and law enforcement. Some governments such as Dubai have banned the currency. Additionally, cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase, and OKX have delisted Monero stating concerns about its potential misuse by bad actors. 

Binance Set to Delist Monero

On an official blog, Binance announced a decision to halt all Monero XMR trading pairs along with other tokens like Aragon (ANT), Multichain (MULTI), and Vai (VAI), on February 20, 2024. The news of Monero’s delisting had an immediate impact on its price, causing it to plummet nearly 19% to $136 after the announcement. 

Notably, Binance communicated its reason for delisting Monero and the other three tokens. The exchange said the decision was influenced by several factors, including a token’s contribution to a healthy and sustainable crypto ecosystem, evidence of unethical or fraudulent conduct, and responsiveness to the firm’s due diligence requests.

Monero Response to the Delistment 

Despite the news and effect of delisting, Monero took to X (formerly Twitter) to share a vow to never compromise privacy. Furthermore, they encouraged users to trade with other exchanges and to safely custody their XMR holdings. In response to the tweet, a user inquired if the network was asked to compromise, they said:

“The delisting is happening because Binance is now requiring that deposits come from a publicly transparent address. Monero has used stealth addresses for ALL addresses since its launch in April 2014. Monero allows selective disclosure with view keys but not a transparent address”. 

With this resolve, it appears like Monero wants to continue to position itself as a prominent privacy coin in the cryptocurrency market, valued for its focus on user privacy and anonymity. Meanwhile, Monero trades at $111.11 at press time representing a 32.53% decline in the last 24 hours.