Mimblewimble Lands Litecoin In A Soup As LTC Is Delisted From Major Exchanges

Litecoin has landed itself in a soup after its latest upgrade, with major exchanges in South Korea announcing that they would be delisting the cryptocurrency amidst new privacy features that promise significantly greater privacy to users while conducting transactions.

Bithumb And Upbit To Delist Litecoin

Two prominent South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges, Bithumb and Upbit, have announced that they will be delisting Litecoin due to several new privacy features that have been enabled by the protocol, giving users significantly more privacy during transactions. The announcement from the two exchanges comes after Litecoin’s latest upgrade, the Mimblewimble Extension Blocks (MWEB) network, which is in direct conflict with South Korea’s anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.

At the center of the controversy is an option given to users while trading that allows them not to disclose information related to the transaction. This raised concerns that the coin’s functionality would see the addition of “anonymous transmission technology.”

Users Given Window To Withdraw Funds

Upbit has stated that it will be shutting down market support for Litecoin on the 20th of June. Post the 20th, users will be given a month to withdraw their funds from the exchange, effectively giving them time until the 20th of July. On the other hand, Bithumb is giving users a much smaller window, emphasizing the need to protect its users and create a transparent digital asset market.

As a result, Bithumb stopped accepting Litecoin deposits as early as the 8th of June and has given users time until the 25th of July to withdraw their Litecoin from the exchange.

A Domino Effect?

Could the action by the South Korean exchanges have a domino effect? Litecoin is available on almost all of the major cryptocurrency exchanges, such as FTX US, Binance US, and Coinbase. It was also among the first cryptocurrencies that were available to users through Robinhood back in 2018. However, the move to delist the cryptocurrency by prominent South Korean exchanges could impact the cryptocurrency’s future in the United States as well.

An Uneasy Relationship

Cryptocurrency exchanges have had a fairly uneasy relationship with the so-called privacy-centric tokens that utilize advanced privacy techniques that allow users to preserve their anonymity while conducting transactions. Among the most popular privacy coins are Zcash and Monero, which have a combined market capitalization of $4.7 billion.

The fear around these coins and the anonymity they offer is that they could facilitate illegal activities and also allow scammers and hackers to launder their funds easily. A recent report by Reuters claimed that Binance acted as a “conduit” for laundering $2.35 billion in funds, with Monero critical to the operation’s success that allowed malicious actors to whitewash their illegal gains through the exchange. Binance, on its part, rubbished the reports.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.