Binance – the world’s largest and most popular digital currency exchange in the world – has announced it’s pausing all trading of privacy-centered cryptocurrencies indefinitely.
Binance Says No More Privacy-Focused Trading
At the time of writing, Binance customers will no longer be able to trade or invest in a wide array of anonymous coins focused on full user privacy. The names include Decred, Secret, Verge, BEAM, Monero, Firo, and Zcash, to name a few. Binance explained in a recent statement that the decision was made following new regulatory concerns in several European countries including France, Poland, and Italy.
The news comes as a shock and raises several questions, a big one being, “Is this the end of the crypto space as we know it?” While the industry is still in play and still has lots to offer, one of the big clinchers was that individuals could flock to it in the hopes they could engage in financial activity without being spied on.
Right now, the world of centralized finance (banks, etc.) requires that third parties, middlemen, and prying eyes constantly monitor what customers are doing. If you’re looking to open a standard checking account, for example, you cannot do so unless the offering institution agrees with the terms and circumstances surrounding your situation. It will look at your job history, financial history, and several other elements of your life to decide if providing services or products to you is “risky.”
If it feels you’re not a threat, you’ll get access to the account. Otherwise, you may be denied and shoved unceremoniously out the door. With crypto, assets don’t care about your past. They don’t care if you haven’t always had a high-paying job or if you’ve missed a bill payment here and there. All it cares about is if you have access to the internet. From there, you can download a wallet and begin trading or investing in certain cryptocurrencies.
What Does This Mean for Crypto?
This has been the main idea behind the crypto arena, and there have been many anonymous and privacy-focused digital assets that have come along since then as a means of taking this ideology to the next level. However, with the ceasing of trading these assets on the world’s most prominent crypto exchange, the outlook isn’t great, and one can’t help but wonder if other exchanges and similar platforms will follow suit, thus leading these assets to their doom.
The death of privacy and anonymity in the crypto arena will mean the death of the original ideals of crypto. While it can be said that these assets have been used to engage in illicit activity, these cases are arguably in the minority, and one must believe that most of the people who use these coins are simply doing so because they don’t want vultures breathing down their necks.
