Changelly Can Withhold XMR If KYC Isn’t Completed
Privacy coins, such as Monero (XMR), ZCash (ZEC), Horizen (ZEN), are often the topic of controversy within the cryptocurrency community, as some naysayers claim that these assets directly enable money laundering, terrorist financing and the like. Although this may be true in rare, fringe cases, these critics fail to remember that a good majority of privacy coin-enabled transactions are likely made with good intentions.
Regardless, Changelly, a Prague-based ‘instant’ cryptocurrency exchange, has recently sought to restrict
Monero (XMR) trading on its platform, even though it has natively supported the privacy coin for months, if not years.
For individuals looking for near-instant crypto-to-crypto transactions, Changelly is undoubtedly one of the best places to go-to, but for those looking to trade their assets into Monero specifically, using the service may pose a bigger problem. Over the past few months, a multitude of users have taken to Reddit to claim that Changelly withheld hundreds of Monero due to “high risk” KYC concerns.
As reported by The Next Web, a Changelly representative has since confirmed that the service is allowed to have a finger over the trigger, which allows the exchange to withhold “suspicious transactions” that involve Monero. He/she wrote:
To all Monero community, our risk management system doesn’t mark all transactions out of the blue… Monero is the crypto that hides a sender and recipient thus making transactions untraceable. This [is] a reason why big amounts of other currency got to be checked [sic] before [it’s] converted to XMR.
The spokesperson went on to add that Changelly does not inherently hate users who use XMR but will restrict transactions in accordance with its rather strict KYC procedure, as fears of money laundering run rampant within global regulatory bodies. The company representative also added that as soon as the proper KYC protocol is fulfilled, the funds will immediately be released to the predesignated consumer-owned address, and the said user would even be whitelisted to avoid such an occurrence from happening again.
On the other hand, however, it was unfortunately revealed that if the submitted KYC documents are not up to par, Changelly retains to right to keep all of the withheld cryptocurrencies for an undisclosed period of time.
Regulators And Privacy Cryptos — Not A Good Combo
As reported by Ethereum World News in mid-May, Japan has taken a risk-averse stance towards privacy cryptocurrencies, with regulators within the country requiring local exchanges to delist Monero, Dash, ZCash, and other anonymous blockchain-backed assets or face delicensing.
For now, Japan is the only ‘big name’ country to have made a move against privacy-centric digital assets, but many believe that it won’t stay that way for long, with pessimists speculating that countries around the globe will eventually make their move against this subindustry.
Photo by Marius Ciutacu on Unsplash
