The cryptocurrency sector is seeing a nice bounce today, with many major tokens appreciating in a rather orderly fashion. However, Monero (XMR 0.07%) is one top 50 token by market capitalization is absolutely rocketing higher today.
As of 3:30 p.m. ET, Monero has surged 25.1% over the past 24 hours. This move appears to reflect a partial comeback trade from yesterday's delisting crash. Top crypto exchange Binance announced that Monero and three other tokens would be delisted on Feb. 20, leading to sharp plunges in these tokens. Monero crashed more than 32% intraday yesterday on the news.
Let's dive into what's driving today's recovery in Monero.
How bad will this delisting be for Monero?
Given Binance's status as the leading global crypto exchange, at least in most jurisdictions, this delisting will certainly hurt near-term supply/demand fundamentals for Monero. With withdrawals of Monero tokens not accepted past May 20, investors will likely be quick to pull out their capital from Binance and potentially turn their Monero into stablecoins to withdraw, leading to strong selling pressure over the near term.
Monero's status as a top privacy coin appears to be a key piece of the rationale behind this delisting. Binance noted in its commentary on the reasons for the delisting that, "[w]hen a coin or token no longer meets this standard, or the industry changes, we conduct a more in-depth review and potentially delist it." Regulator concerns over how privacy tokens can obscure the identity of the buyer and seller in a transaction have some crypto exchanges looking closer at these tokens.
That said, considering today's reversion rally in Monero, it appears many in the market still believe in the underlying value of Monero as a privacy-focused payments network.
Is Monero worth buying on the dip?
I'm of the view that there are some concrete reasons why privacy tokens make sense. In the world of crypto, where all transactions are publicly available and easily viewed on the blockchain, companies using crypto to transact may not want their suppliers or customers to know how much they're paying for input costs, or how much they're charging on the back end. There are proprietary use cases and other regulatory reasons why healthcare or finance companies, for example, may not want to store data on the blockchain outside privacy-focused networks.
That said, this delisting reminds investors of the regulatory risks associated with investing in privacy coins. While today's rally is nice to see, I think the jury remains out with respect to the market's verdict on this coin. For now, I'll be watching Monero closely, and will be sure to provide more updates on this token as it finds its market equilibrium in volatile fashion over the coming days.
