Upbit Exchange Withdraws Support to Privacy Coins On Money Laundering Worries

UpBit, South Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange, has decided to terminate the support for six cryptos, mostly privacy focused ones.

In this regard, UpBit stated that the exchange will delist cryptos such as Monero (XMR), ZCash (ZEC), BitTube (TUBE), DASH (DASH), Haven (XHV), and PIVX by September 30.

The exchange further stated that it will no longer back deposits in these cryptos and will nullify orders placed before the transaction against Korean won, Bitcoin (BTC), USDT and Ether (ETH) gets completed. UpBit explicated that the grounds for delisting these six privacy focused cryptos is to prevent money laundering and the pay-in from other networks.

Recently, the South Korean division of cryptocurrency exchange OKEx, OKEx Korea delisted five major altcoins on the basis of changes in global rules.

OKEx Korea affirmed it would prohibit trading of Monero, Zcash, Dash, Horizen (ZEN) and Super Bitcoin (SBTC). The explanation that was given was privacy focused cryptos cannot match the criteria established by the intergovernmental body, the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF.

The FATF is an intergovernmental organization established in 1989 on the push of the G7 to create guidelines to fight money laundering. Even though it is not compulsory for countries to meet with their suggestions, it could put non-compliant countries in financial blacklist.

The far reaching amendments to crypto transaction rules necessitate businesses to recognize the two parties transferring funds to each other if a transaction is worth over $1,000.

Over 200 countries are expected to make the rules effective by June 2020, in spite of worries that implementation is practically difficult for several decentralized blockchains.