The price of several privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, including Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR), fell the past day after crypto exchange OKX said on Dec. 29 that it would delist them on Jan. 5 because they do not align with its listing criteria.

Data from CyptoRanking shows that the entire ‘privacy cryptos’ sector witnessed a decline of 3.4%, impacting major cryptocurrencies across the board. During the reporting period, stalwart privacy coins like Monero and Zcash dipped by 2.4% and 9.37%, respectively.

Other tokens to be delisted by OKX include Dash, Powerpool, and Horizen, which fell by as much as 14% during the reporting period.

“We will delist the above-mentioned trading pairs at the delisting times listed above. We advise users to cancel orders pertaining to these trading pairs before the delisting. Otherwise, the system will automatically cancel these orders. The cancellation may take 1-3 working days,” OKX added.

Concurrently, OKX has halted deposits for the affected cryptocurrencies and intends to cease withdrawals by March 5, 2024, allowing holders adequate time to withdraw their assets. Nevertheless, once the delisting process is complete, trading these digital assets will become impossible.

Curiously, certain privacy coins like MINA remain listed on the exchange, experiencing a 7.5% increase following this delisting announcement.

However, it’s worth noting that OKX is not exclusively delisting privacy tokens. The exchange also included other trading pairs belonging to digital assets like Kusama, Flow, Kyber Network, and Aragon in the assets to be delisted.

Why is OKX delisting privacy coins?

While OKX hasn’t explicitly detailed the reasons behind its decision, observers have suggested that the move might have been influenced by the exchange’s effort to comply with regulatory measures.

Privacy coins have attracted regulatory scrutiny due to concerns about their potential use in illicit activities within the crypto space.

Earlier in the year, Binance said it would delist several privacy coins in compliance with local laws and regulations.