Canto VII: The Discomfort of the Pantheons
Exchanges remove Monero; regulators implement growing restrictions on privacy coins.
The world powers perceive the danger. Not because Monero is inherently threatening, it is just software executing established cryptography. But because Monero works. Because its promises are technical, not political, and therefore immune to the pressures that affect people and companies.
The exchanges suffer pressure. Japan in 2018 was the first country to formally require that regulated exchanges delist privacy coins. The Financial Services Agency interpreted the Exchange Act as requiring all transactions to be traceable, and Monero, by design, is not.
Kraken ended Monero trading in the UK in 2021. OKX announced XMR spot-pair delistings in late December 2023 and carried them out on 5 January 2024. Announcement and closure had separate dates. Erebus watched access points narrow as his followers sought other paths.
But Erebus learned from the centuries: the attempt to eliminate shadow only makes it more necessary. Each delisting was met with growing volumes on decentralized exchanges, on peer-to-peer trades, on channels that don't depend on a company with a physical headquarters that can be pressured.
The regulators found new words for this new evil. *Non-traceable* coins. *Dangerous* coins. *High-risk* coins. But words do not alter mathematics. And the mathematics of Monero remains as intact as the day it was written.
Every act of censorship only reaffirms the reason why Monero exists.