Crypto Exchange Binance to Delist Tornado Cash Token TORN and Others Following Regulatory Review

Crypto Exchange Binance to Delist Tornado Cash Token TORN and Others Following Regulatory Review

Crypto News – Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it will be delisting Tornado Cash’s native token, TORN, effective December 7, 2023. This decision, part of the exchange’s ongoing review process, also affects other tokens including BitShares (BTS), PERL.eco (PERL), and Waltonchain (WTC).

According to Binance’s blog post dated November 27, 2023, the exchange will cease support for deposits and withdrawals of these tokens. Following the delisting, Binance will no longer accept deposits of these tokens, and withdrawals will be suspended on March 7, 2024, at 03:00 (UTC).

While specific details regarding the delisting were not fully disclosed, Binance indicated that these tokens no longer align with its operational standards. This announcement significantly impacted the market value of TORN, which saw its price plummet by over 44%, falling below $2, as reported by CoinGecko.

This development follows the September 2023 plea of not guilty by Roman Storm, the co-founder of Tornado Cash, against charges of laundering over $1 billion in funds, allegedly linked to North Korean hackers.

Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based decentralized protocol, offers enhanced privacy for transactions. It achieves this by mixing, or pooling and scrambling, cryptocurrencies from various users. This process anonymizes transactions and conceals their origins.

Binance’s decision comes in the wake of its founder, Changpeng Zhao, pleading guilty to violations of U.S. anti-money-laundering regulations. Zhao agreed to step down as the head of the exchange in response to these allegations.

The U.S. Treasury Department accused Binance of failing to report over 100,000 transactions on its platform linked to illegal activities, including activities on the darknet, scams, fraud, and other malicious operations. As part of a settlement agreement amounting to $4.3 billion, Binance has agreed to retrospectively identify and report suspicious transactions to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which it had previously failed to disclose.