Coinbase to delist Zcash for U.K. customers for unknown reasons

Published on by Cryptoslate | Published on

Coinbase has told customers in the U.K. it will remove support for Zcash on the 26th of August, 2019, just days after British tax authority HM Revenue & Customs reportedly requested customer and transaction data from the cryptocurrency exchange.

The announcement was first reported August 9th by U.K.-based users of the exchange, who said they'd been advised by Coinbase they could either withdraw ZEC balances or convert them to any other supported cryptocurrency in advance of the deadline.

Coinbase's sudden announcement prompted concerns on Twitter that the privacy-centric coin-which allows users to mask their addresses at discretion-was to be removed due to concerns it was non-compliant with British KYC/AML regulations.

If so might it be more advantageous for all if instead Coinbase just dropped private addressing support themselves?

To pre-empt speculation, we confirm that Zcash is 100% compatible with UK regulations & KYC/AML requirements.

The Electric Coin Company said it couldn't comment on the reason behind the coin's dismissal with VP of Marketing Josh Swihart stepping in repeatedly to fend off questions and suggesting affected take up the issue with Coinbase.

Jswihart Josh - Do you know why Coinbase is removing ZEC wallets from their exchange in the UK? - Jason McGee August 8, 2019.Not KYC/AML concerns, but something else?

This isn't the first time Coinbase has tread carefully around Zcash in the U.K., and despite the coin's apparent KYC/AML compliance in the region, previous statements from the exchange suggest other regulatory hurdles could be the cause of the surprise delisting.

Famously compliance-heavy Coinbase at the time appears to speak conservatively about its plans for the coin, coming just weeks after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security named Zcash as one of the privacy cryptocurrencies it was looking to examine for potentially illicit transactions.

Initially, customers can send ZEC to Coinbase from both transparent and shielded addresses, but only send off Coinbase to transparent addresses.

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