OKX has announced that it is deleting 11 trading pairs. These changes will go into effect from early January 2024.
For years, privacy tokens have been controversial in the crypto industry. Privacy tokens are cryptos that cannot be traced and offer complete anonymity for those who use them. Some see them as useful and necessary for preserving the privacy of users and others see them as dangerous. Now, the popular crypto exchange OKX has announced that it will be delisting several privacy tokens in the new year, including Monero. These changes will come into effect on January 4 and 5, 2024.
Monero and Others to Be Affected
According to the official announcement from OKX, 11 different tokens are due to be delisted and this was based both on its own guidelines and feedback from its users.
“In order to maintain a robust spot trading environment, we constantly monitor the performance of all listed trading pairs and review their listing qualifications on a regular basis,” it says.
11 different trading pairs are being removed from the site, and these include such tokens as Monero and Zcash. Customers have been advised to cancel any orders relating to these trading pairs before the delisting time arrives, otherwise, they will be automatically canceled by the exchange.
OKX has also halted the deposits of FSN, ZKS, CAPO, CVP, XMR, DASH, ZEC, and ZEN from December 27, 2023, though users can still access whatever tokens they deposited before then. Withdrawals of FSN, ZKS, CAPO, CVP, XMR, DASH, ZEC, and ZEN will also be suspended from March 5, 2024, and users have been advised to withdraw their tokens.
It is quite interesting that privacy tokens like Monero and ZCash are included in this delisting. Both are quite popular within the market and while OKX has not specified which are being delisted due to low activity versus feedback from users, we can still speculate.
According to CoinMarketCap, Monero had a trading volume of over $128 million in the last 24 hours alone and is ranked 69th in trading volume out of over 8,000 cryptos. ZCash, on the other hand, had over $77 million and is ranked 105th. While these two are not at the top of the hierarchy necessarily, they seem far from underperforming. And given the growing emphasis on privacy among crypto users, they also have tangible growth potential.
We can also consider the impact of controversy on this decision. Monero, for example, has been involved in a number of controversies including a kidnapping scheme a few years ago. The truth is that while the level of privacy it offers can be used positively, criminals might also look to take advantage. OKX will probably not confirm the exact reason for this decision but it will be interesting to see if other exchanges follow the same route.
