Dash claims 'inaccurate categorization' as ShapeShift delists privacy coins

While the ban may sound extreme, regulators have recently honed in on the use of privacy coins like Monero, Zcash and Dash.

Although the document discusses cryptocurrencies in general, the report specifically addresses issues involving "Anonymity enhanced cryptocurrencies," also known as AECs or privacy coins.

Following the release of the cryptocurrency enforcement framework, ShapeShift, a Swiss cryptocurrency exchange platform that runs operations out of Denver, Colorado, has delisted the very same three privacy coins mentioned.

While ShapeShift declined to comment on the matter, Ryan Taylor, CEO of Dash Core Group, told Cointelegraph that the Dash network was labeled as a privacy coin in 2014.

Aside from the challenges of getting relisted, other cryptocurrency exchanges may follow suit and start delisting privacy coins.

Catania further remarked that even if privacy coins are not banned, a lot more work and scrutiny would be required moving forward for crypto exchanges to interact with clients who wish to use privacy coins.

Catania believes that for some exchanges, the risks and costs would not outweigh the benefits of supporting privacy coins, so more exchanges are likely to delist privacy coins in the future.

Speculations aside, Dash Core's Taylor ultimately believes that Dash is no more of a privacy coin than Bitcoin: "Most people would say that Bitcoin is clearly not a privacy coin, so it's informative to evaluate where Dash would fall on this privacy spectrum compared to Bitcoin." He went on to add: "Bitcoin is absolutely higher risk than Dash from a regulatory perspective for many reasons, both technical and in terms of its real-world use."

Taylor further expressed that the label of a privacy coin is meaningless, as different technologies provide differing degrees of privacy to different participants.

John Jefferies, the chief financial analyst at CipherTrace - a blockchain intelligence firm - further told Cointelegraph that the line between privacy coins and Bitcoin is not binary since privacy enhancements like CoinJoin and layer-two networks can also enhance the privacy of Bitcoin transactions.