Kraken to delist Monero in Belgium, Ireland 

XMR price chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

Kraken will disable withdrawals from June 10 and convert all Monero balances to Bitcoin (BTC). The move in Belgium and Ireland comes after the crypto exchange removed the privacy coins from its global exchange in February.

In January, the firm assigned a monitoring tag to several coins, such as XMR. Other crypto exchanges, including Binance and OKX, also delisted Monero.

Krakens Monero support cracks under EU regulations

Krakens decision to cease XMR support in Belgium and Ireland comes on the backdrop of anti-money laundering (AML) policies introduced by the European Union last month. The crypto community initially surmised that the EU moved to ban self-custodial wallets and crypto transactions.

However, Circles EU Strategy and Policy Director Patrick Hansen explained that the new AML regulations prohibit crypto-asset service providers from offering privacy coins and users from making merchant payments with tokens like XMR.

I will have more to say on this the next few days and I am not a fan of the AMLR, but dont believe the FUD that is being shared.

Similarly, the EU‘s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislation also regards privacy coins as contraband. MiCA became law last June and will be enforceable by December, while the EU’s new AML regulations will likely become applicable by mid-2027.