Founded in 2013, Huobi Group is a world-leading company in the digital economy industry, with a mission to make breakthroughs in core blockchain technologies and integration of blockchain technology with other industries. Surrounding the upstream and downstream sectors, Huobi Group has expanded into industry blockchain, public chain, digital assets trading and wallet, digital economy research, etc., and has established a global industry ecosystem for the digital economy. With the principle of globalization, professionalism, compliance, and diversification, Huobi Group is dedicated to providing safe and trustworthy Internet of Value (IoV) services to its tens of millions of users in more than 100 countries and regions.
[Huobi. The Leading Company of Digital Economy. (Accessed September 12, 2022)].
But running an Exchange is not without it's regulatory rules and regulations to follow. "While different countries have set different rules and regulations in accordance with their existing financial laws, a common theme has been the strict implementation of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations. A majority of crypto exchanges operating with a license obtained from the government body or government-affiliated bodies have discouraged any form of anonymous transactions. Even in countries where there is no particular law on privacy coins, there is a ban on private transactions over a certain threshold" [Jha, P. Regulations and exchange delistings put future of private cryptocurrencies in doubt. (Accessed September 12, 2022)].
The Chief Investment Officer of Mudrex, a crypto investment platform, Ankit Verma, told Cointelegraph:
While some exchanges periodically prohibit trading privacy coins, most of the largest privacy coins are currently available for trading across major exchanges in different jurisdictions. Yet, the institutional skepticism around the adoption of privacy coins persists. It is difficult to predict the usage of privacy coins on a wider scale primarily because of the strict enforcement of KYC and AML guidelines. Our belief is the absence of institutional affinity for privacy coins combined with the fact they are unregulated further dampens the possibility of widespread adoption of privacy coins.
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It is in this light that Huobi Exchange "announced that it had terminated the trading service of a number of privacy tokens including Dash (DSH), Decred (DCR), Firo (FIRO), Monero (XMR), Verge (XVG), Zcash (ZEC) and Horizen (ZEN). These tokens will begin to be delisted on Sept. 19, while deposit services ceased on Monday in conjunction with the announcement. Users were urged to cancel open orders for the privacy coins, while the exchange will cancel any existing orders at the delisting time and credit users' spot accounts" [Jenkinson, G. Huobi to delist Monero and other privacy coins, citing regulatory pressures. (Accessed September 12, 2022)].
Huobi stated that it is trying to comply with the regulatory requirements of over 100 countries in which it conducts it's business. The Exchange maintains that it is making efforts to be in compliance with the latest issued financial regulations as well as it own 'Token Management Rules'. "Article 17(16) of its rules list addresses "trading concealment or suspension," which gives Huobi Global the right to conceal or suspend token trading in the following circumstances. Clause 16 is directed at privacy coins in particular: 'The token is a privacy token, does not support offline signatures, or its node source codes are not open-sourced' [Id.].
"The exchange also confirmed that it had ended trading services on its futures, margin, ETP, OTC and trading bot services. Cointelegraph has reached out to Huobi Global to ascertain the driving force behind the move and whether regulators in specific countries have necessitated the delisting of the respective privacy coins" [Id].
The subject of delisting anonymity-enhanced currencies (AECs) was addressed in an article published by Bloomberg in 2019. The Bloomberg article noted:
Cryptocurrencies such as Monero, Zcash and Dash, which can to varying degrees obfuscate transactions, are making it harder for exchanges and custodians to comply with fresh international guidelines to prevent illicit financing. Some exchanges are finding it easier to delist the coins rather than figure out how to adhere to the additional risk management requirements. In August, Coinbase UK dropped support for Zcash. On Sept. 10, OKEx Korea said it’s delisting five coins -- Monero, Dash, Zcash, ZCache, Horizon and Super Bitcoin -- citing the Financial Action Task Force rules outlined in June. 'It’s certainly seen as creating a huge hurdle to the existence of privacy coins,' said Jesse Spiro, the head of policy at crypto investigative firm Chainalysis Inc. He anticipates more exchanges will drop coins. (emphasis added)
Kharif, O. Privacy Coins Face Existential Threat Amid Regulatory Pinch. (Accessed September 12, 2022)].