LocalMonero, a peer-to-peer trading network for XMR, has announced the suspension of all activities, including new signups for the privacy coin XMR.
On May 7, LocalMonero declared an immediate halt to new signups and Monero trade advertising, with trading ending on May 14. The site ascribed its shutdown on a combination of internal and external factors, albeit no specifics were provided.
Users are encouraged to remove cash by November 7 to avoid potential losses. Despite this setback, the site acknowledged Monero’s expanding environment, pointing to planned decentralized exchanges and privacy upgrades.
While some perceive this as part of an anti-privacy cryptocurrency trend, others, such as Railgun blogger Alan Scott Jr., point out intelligence agencies’ complex position. They seek to strike a compromise between privacy and security considerations while minimizing impediments to identifying illicit actors.
LocalMonero Closure Amidst Regulatory Scrutiny
Privacy activists such as “Seth For Privacy” mourned the shutdown, emphasizing LocalMonero’s position in the no-KYC Monero ecosystem. This event adds to recent governmental moves against privacy coins, which raise worries about money laundering.
Privacy activists and users are disappointed by LocalMonero’s abrupt closure, underlining its importance in the no-KYC Monero ecosystem despite increased regulatory scrutiny of privacy coins.
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