Japan’s crypto exchange, Liquid, has delisted the privacy-enabled Zcash (ZEC), along with 28 other coins in order to comply with Singapore’s regulations. The exchange plans to get an operating license in Singapore, hence with the swift changes made.
The Electric Coin Company (ECC), a non-profit organization overlooking the development of the Zcash public blockchain, however, dismissed the delisting: claiming ZEC is compliant with regulatory authorities.
Liquid Delists ZEC to Comply with Singapore Laws
In a tweet sent out on Friday, July 24, 2020, ECC said Liquid had notified them of their plans to shut down buying, selling, and trading of ZEC on the platform in compliance with Singapore’s laws. This follows a frenzy across Korean and Singapore based crypto exchanges delisting privacy coins due to the FAFT Travel rule notice issued at the tail end of 2019.
However, there is no official communication from Liquid exchange yet. We will follow up with the full list of delisted cryptocurrencies on the exchange.
Also Read: Coinbase Delists Privacy-Focused Cryptocurrency, Zcash (ZEC), In The U.K.
A Rash Decision to Delist?
According to the statement put out by the ECC, Liquid has made a rash decision to quickly gain the Singaporean license.
(2/5) We believe Liquid’s decision was made out of an abundance of caution for the purpose of quickly obtaining a license, as
— Electric Coin Company (@ElectricCoinCo) July 22, 2020
The argument revolves around whether privacy-focused cryptocurrencies such as Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR) are regulatory compliant. ECC believes so. Jack Gavigan, the products and regulations head at the ECC, wrote a blog post in March 2019 explaining how ZEC can be AML/CFT compliant.
He explains that personal finance privacy is essential in the growing digital world, hence the need for privacy enabled currencies. On being compliant, Jack states that ZEC can be as quickly regulated as cash is regulated today. He wrote:
“The techniques and processes that have been honed and perfected over decades to detect and discourage the use of cash for money laundering and terrorist financing can be applied to Zcash, including customer due-diligence checks, record-keeping, and making Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) when appropriate.”
No other exchanges in the 28 have been revealed yet. The ECC is willing to help exchanges understand how to become compliant with AML/CFT rules while trading ZEC in the future.
See More: BitOasis Removes Privacy Coins Zcash & Monero Without Notice to Users