Coinbase CEO: Exchange Won’t List XMR Due to ‘Issue With Regulators’

Brian Armstrong says regulators would be "up in arms" with Monero listed on Coinbase, even as Binance and Kraken offer support for the token.

Brian Armstrong says Coinbase won’t be listing privacy coins like Monero (XMR) as they’re still untested grounds for regulators in the United States.

In a July 24 interview with Peter McCormack on his “What Bitcoin Did” podcast, Armstrong said he wanted to take a more conservative approach with Coinbase so the exchange would pass the test of time. One of these issues was avoiding direct confrontation about privacy coins including Monero.

Armstrong told McCormack, who referred to Monero as “the most credible privacy coin,” that as privacy coins become more accepted, Coinbase’s team would consider listing them:

“I think with enough time and education, people will get comfortable enough with it. Privacy coins will become more mainstream over time I hope, and maybe more privacy solutions on Bitcoin too.”

Associated with ransomware attacks

Though Bitcoin (BTC) is still the token of choice for some users of darknet sites and scams — e.g. the massive hack on verified Twitter accounts and continued use in fake crypto giveaways on YouTube — many criminals have left instructions for their victims to pay them in XMR instead. 

Cointelegraph reported on July 20 that hackers responsible for a Ransomware attack on Argentina's largest telecommunications company demanded $7.5 million in XMR, or 100,000 tokens.

Coinbase not the only option

Monero has been available for trading on other major exchanges including Kraken for more than three years, and Binance since September 2019. However, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb and Singapore-based exchange Huobi announced earlier this year that they would be removing XMR from their listings as the token faced allegations that it was used for criminal acts.

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