Why exchanges delist Monero

Exchanges delist Monero mainly to meet anti-money-laundering rules, which expect them to identify customers, pass on sender and recipient details and trace where funds come from.^[1] Monero hides the sender, receiver and amount by default, which makes tracing hard.^[2] Owning it isn’t banned in most countries, as of November 2026: the rules target businesses.

What does it mean when an exchange delists Monero?

Delisting means an exchange stops supporting a coin. Trading and deposits end, and customers get a deadline to withdraw their coins to a wallet they control. When Binance delisted Monero, trading stopped on 20 February 2024, deposits weren’t credited after 21 February, and withdrawals were supported until 20 May 2024.^[3] When Kraken dropped Monero in Europe, it converted any left on its platform after the withdrawal deadline into bitcoin.^[4]

A delisting doesn’t change Monero itself. The network keeps running, and coins in a wallet you control aren’t affected. What changes is how easy it is to buy, sell or cash out through that exchange.

Why is Monero being delisted?

Because regulated exchanges are expected to trace where funds come from, and Monero is designed to hide those details. Exchanges count as virtual asset service providers (VASPs) under the standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the intergovernmental body behind global anti-money-laundering rules. Countries are expected to license or register VASPs and supervise them like other financial firms.^[1] Three duties matter most here:

• Know your customer. Exchanges must check who their customers are, including for one-off transactions above USD/EUR 1,000.^[1]
• The travel rule. When a customer sends crypto, the exchange must obtain, hold and pass on information about the sender and the recipient, as banks do for wire transfers.^[1]
• Monitoring. Exchanges must report suspicious transactions. FATF guidance mentions blockchain-analysis tools that rate the risk of wallet addresses as one way to see through anonymising techniques.^[1]

Monero makes that monitoring hard by design. Its ring signatures, stealth addresses and confidential amounts hide the sender, the receiver and the amount of every payment, and there’s no way to send a transparent one.^[2] FATF guidance treats “anonymity-enhanced transactions” as a higher money-laundering risk. It says that if an exchange can’t manage and mitigate the risks of anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrencies, it “should not be permitted to engage in such activities”.^[1]

The exchanges themselves have said little about their reasons. Binance cited its periodic review of listed coins,^[3] OKX said its Monero pairs didn’t meet its listing criteria,^[5] and Kraken pointed to “regulatory changes” in Europe.^[4]

Where has Monero been delisted or restricted?

These are notable delistings and rules, each confirmed with a source. It isn’t a complete list.

As of November 2026, Kraken also doesn’t let clients in the UK, Canada or Australia deposit or trade Monero.^[10]

Is Monero banned in the USA?

As far as we can find, no: as of November 2026, no US law bans owning or using Monero. US exchanges decide for themselves whether to offer it. Monero isn’t on Kraken’s list of assets restricted for US clients, although Kraken doesn’t serve residents of Maine or New York at all.^[10]

Why isn’t Monero on Coinbase?

Coinbase hasn’t listed Monero. In a 2020 podcast interview, its chief executive, Brian Armstrong, said he would personally like to list it, but that regulators were uneasy about privacy coins and Coinbase was taking a cautious approach.^[11]

Can US citizens buy Monero?

Generally, yes. People in the US can buy Monero from exchanges that offer it to US clients, such as Kraken outside Maine and New York,^[10] or directly from another person.^[2] Expect identity checks on any regulated exchange.^[1] Check your state’s rules and the exchange’s terms before you buy.

Is Monero banned in the UK or the EU?

The EU. The rules target businesses, not people who hold Monero in their own wallets. Kraken stopped offering Monero to clients in the European Economic Area on 31 October 2024, citing regulatory changes.^[4] From 10 July 2027, Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 bars banks, other financial institutions and crypto-asset service providers from keeping accounts that allow “the anonymisation or increased obfuscation of transactions, including through anonymity-enhancing coins”. It doesn’t name specific coins, and it says this ban doesn’t apply to providers of self-hosted wallets that have no access to or control over those wallets.^[9]

The UK. We found no rule that bans individuals from holding Monero. Kraken, however, doesn’t let UK clients deposit or trade it.^[10]

Is Monero legal to own?

In most countries, as of November 2026, owning or using Monero isn’t itself banned. Every rule above is aimed at exchanges and other service providers, not at people holding coins in their own wallets. But rules differ and change, so check yours. This isn’t legal advice. Our country-by-country guide goes into individual countries.

• Watch for delisting notices. If your exchange announces one, move your coins before the withdrawal deadline. Kraken converted leftover Monero into bitcoin.^[4]
• Self-custody keeps you in control. An exchange’s decision doesn’t affect coins in a wallet where you hold the keys. Monero wallets explained covers how that works.
• Exchanges aren’t the only route. Peer-to-peer markets and atomic swaps (trades between two different coins, such as Bitcoin and Monero, that complete for both sides or not at all) exist. getmonero.org’s merchants page lists some and reminds readers to do their own research.^[12] Using them doesn’t change the laws that apply to you.

Privacy or compliance: what’s the debate?

Regulators’ concern is straightforward. EU lawmakers wrote that “the anonymity of crypto-assets exposes them to risks of misuse for criminal purposes”, and that anonymising instruments make it hard to trace transfers or spot suspicious ones.^[9] FATF treats anonymity-enhanced transactions as a higher money-laundering and terrorist-financing risk.^[1]

Supporters of financial privacy make a different case. On a transparent blockchain, anyone can see how much money moves from one user to another. The Monero Project argues that hiding this also makes coins fungible: one coin is as good as another, so people don’t have to check whether the coins they receive were once linked to a crime.^[2] FATF’s own guidance says countries should be aware of how anti-money-laundering rules affect other policy areas, such as data protection and privacy, financial inclusion and innovation.^[1]

This guide doesn’t take a side. Rules change how easily Monero can be used through regulated businesses; they don’t change what the software does. How private is Monero? explains what it hides and what it doesn’t, our plain-English guide to Monero covers the basics, and Privacy coins explained compares it with other privacy coins.