Kraken to delist Monero in Belgium, Ireland

Kraken’s Monero support cracks under EU regulations

Kraken’s decision to cease XMR support in Belgium and Ireland comes on the backdrop of anti-money laundering (AML) policies introduced by the European Union last month. The crypto community initially surmised that the EU moved to ban self-custodial wallets and crypto transactions.

However, Circle’s EU Strategy and Policy Director Patrick Hansen explained that the new AML regulations prohibit crypto-asset service providers from offering privacy coins and users from making merchant payments with tokens like XMR.

Similarly, the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislation also regards privacy coins as contraband. MiCA became law last June and will be enforceable by December, while the EU’s new AML regulations will likely become applicable by mid-2027.