The hacked crypto exchange CoinCheck seeks to delist some privacy tokens on its exchange. This exchange suffered a huge attack which saw the exchange lose a large amount of NEM tokens (equivalent to $530 million). Since this hack, the exchange has been sold to a firm called Monex. This new firm as of last week Friday announced through their website that they would no longer support the trading, exchange, buying and selling of privacy tokens as from June. These privacy tokens allow users to be able to make transactions that are anonymous and at the same time untraceable. According to the website, this decision was reached after a review of the internal control of the exchange as part of the strategy of the new management to be able to deliver and also protect its users.
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The website stated that trading these cryptocurrencies is not appropriate for the exchange and this is in line with the anti-money-laundering committee's decision that has been issued to the exchange. According to a report that has not been fully confirmed, the FSA (Federal Service Agency) of Japan which is in charge of the licensing and regulation of all exchanges in the country has been pressurizing these exchanges to delist all privacy tokens from their various platforms. Prior to the January hack, the CoinCheck exchange had applied for a license to the FSA but was pending and since then they have not been able to get the license. These new owners of the exchange, on the other hand, have been licensed by the Agency because according to them, they have adhered strictly to the regulations and instructions that have been set aside by the FSA. Most people are of the opinion that the decision to delist these privacy tokens will be one move the new owners will take to be on good terms with the FSA.
Apart from privacy tokens, Augur will also be delisted from the exchange. Experts are of the opinion that this move is because the crypto has been used for unlicensed gambling by casinos in and out of the country. Some of the privacy tokens include the Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH) and the Zcash (ZEC).
This decision is reached because most countries are of the opinion that cryptocurrencies can be used for fraudulent activities and also fuel terrorism in the country. So they believe that these privacy tokens will definitely help people to carry out fraudulent activities as they cannot be traced back to them. According to the official website of the exchange, all traders who own these privacy tokens should withdraw these tokens and sell them off immediately. The decision to delist these tokens will begin in earnest from the 18th of June 2018.
While we do not know if more cryptocurrency exchanges based in Japan would be forced to delist these tokens, we can be sure that the FSA will stop at nothing to ensure that all cryptos that might pose a threat to the integrity of the nation will be banned.