According to a post on the OKEx Korea website, the exchange has made the decision to delist five altcoins from next month, for regulatory reasons. The post, published on Tuesday the 10th of September, specifies that because the coins are very privacy-oriented, OKEx will not be able to follow specific guidelines as stipulated by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The affected digital assets include Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), Zcash (ZEC), Horizen (ZEN) and Super Bitcoin (SBTC) as well, and will be unavailable from Thursday the 10th of October, 2019.
Back in June, the FATF intensified its hold on digital currencies, with a focus on their role with money laundering and has stated that the cryptocurrency exchanges must be able to identify the parties in a trade, include the senders and recipients. The exchanges should also be able to ensure that these transactions are not focused on any illicit activity.
At the time, Steven Mnuchin, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasure said:
“By adopting the standards and guidelines agreed to…the FATF will make sure that virtual asset service providers do not operate in the dark shadows. This will enable the emerging FinTech sector to stay one-step ahead of rogue regimes and sympathizers of illicit causes searching for avenues to raise and transfer funds without detection.”
There has been some worry that the enforcement of the FATF rules could be very difficult especially with regards to decentralized blockchains. Nevertheless, it is expected that by June next year, at least 200 nations would have begun enforcing them.
Reportedly, the coins delisted on OKEx Korea will still be available on the main OKEx platform.
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