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Zcash, one of the more well-known privacy cryptocurrencies, has been booted off Coinbase in the UK, with the exchange delisting them without much reasoning. This has led to much speculation and reasoning as to why it would happen.

Zcash, as a privacy coin, is focused on allowing the most anonymous transactions possible, Many think that Bitcoin’s transactions are totally anonymous, but this is not the case, allowing Zcash to step in and corner that market. 

However, the issue with privacy coins, especially in a growingly regulated cryptocurrency market, is that they are even harder to police and open the doors to more nefarious uses. It could well be that there are regulatory concerns in the UK about supporting a coin that cannot be tied back to its transactor, it it could be other reasons. 

What to do?

There has not been much explanation as to why Coinbase has made this decision to delist Zcash, however, they have opened up the options to their UK customer as to what they can do with their current haul of Zcash coins. 

Option one, any Zcash held on Coinbase can be converted into any other cryptocurrency on the exchange. Option two, simply send the Zcash to an external wallet or another exchange.

These options are obviously allowing Coinbase to rid themselves of the coins on their platform for the UK, but they are so adamant about this that if none of these options are taken, in the August26 deadline, the coins will be liquidated into Pounds no matter what. 

Concern for Zcash?

This move to delist Zcash does not appear to be a bigger move from regulators in Great Britain to stamp down on the privacy coin, rather, this appears to be an isolated incident.

In fact, developer of Zcash confirmed the news on Twitter, but was quick to point out that this issue was limited to Coinbase customers.

“To pre-empt speculation, we confirm that Zcash is 100% compatible with UK regulations & KYC/AML requirements,” they wrote, stating that no other exchanges in the UK were affected.

Thus, as this is isolated to one exchange, and has not seen any of the regulatory bodies commenting on it, it can be gathered that the move is not one to do with the legality of the coin. There are however other theories that are floating around.

Banking options

Alistair Milne tweeted that the delisting was likely a precondition to Coinbase getting access to the U.K. faster payments system. 

“Delisting $ZEC was probably a pre-condition of Coinbase getting access to the UK's 'faster payments' system back ...

(i.e. it wasn't a regulatory requirement, but a banking one)” he Tweeted.

Coinbase has been attempting to bridge the market across in the UK after dominating much of the US. This was also done through their delivery of a Coinbase card that links to the cryptocurrency account for users in Britain. 

This move to delist may be a better option for them going forward if they are to tap into things like the UK’s faster payments, as suggested by Milne. 

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