How Governments Are Targeting Privacy Coins Like Monero

Short Summary: Privacy Coins

As the name implies, privacy coins are cryptocurrencies designed with a strong focus on privacy. They utilize advanced cryptographic techniques like ring signatures and stealth addresses to decouple a user's identity from their transaction history. Without going into technical details, these coins cannot simply be traced on a traditional blockchain without access to the secret keys. They rely on complex mathematics that makes it effectively impossible for outside observers to trace transactions.

While there are some techniques that can de-anonymize certain privacy coin transactions, the complexity of doing so is the reason these coins have become prevalent on the darknet. Monero has emerged as the gold standard, while traditional cryptocurrencies are often frowned upon. This is also the exact reason these coins are so disliked by governments.

Government Attacks & Regulations

Monero, along with an assortment of other privacy coins, has long been targeted by governments around the world. Governments generally view such currencies as risks because they cannot easily monitor or trace them. Starting with the United States, there are many examples of government efforts to impact privacy coins. Law enforcement agencies have long been trying to find ways and create tools to trace Monero transactions. Even the IRS has set a bounty for anyone who can crack Monero, offering to pay $625,000.

In recent years, things in the US have become even more extreme, targeting the bank accounts of people who deal directly with privacy coins. Operation Choke Point 2, which lasted between 2024 and 2025, has done just that, with large banking institutions like Chase and Wells Fargo involved in flagging and closing accounts. In a more surprising twist, in 2026 the US Treasury released a report stating that "privacy tools have legitimate uses." This is, however, suspicious, as they also said their use is only acceptable when the absence of criminal activity can be proven.

The EU has been even more aggressive, passing the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation, which fundamentally reclassifies privacy coins. The law explicitly prohibits Crypto-Asset Service Providers—which include exchanges, custodial wallets, and payment processors, from offering services for "Anonymity-Enhanced Cryptocurrencies" like Monero. The law even goes as far as targeting large amounts of cryptocurrency held in cold storage, although it does not prohibit it outright.

Even other countries, known to be more relaxed with traditional finances, have been targeting privacy coins. Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, which many countries look to as a blueprint for modern regulation, issued a total ban on privacy coins. There are many more examples of governments and regulations attacking privacy coins, prosecuting people and companies associated with or providing services related to them. We simply cannot mention all of them in this article, as it would turn into a Wiki page.

Delisted From Exchanges

Major exchanges have systematically purged Monero in order to stay in the good graces of global regulators who demand total transaction visibility. Bittrex led the charge in 2021 by dropping Monero, Zcash, and Dash, citing "compliance concerns." Binance followed with a full delisting in 2024 to satisfy federal monitors following its multi-billion dollar settlement with the U.S. government. Kraken took it a step further in 2025 by not only banning Monero across the UK and Europe but also forcibly liquidating user balances into Bitcoin, effectively wiping out the asset's presence on major regulated platforms.

This corporate crackdown has been reinforced by the "voluntary" collapse of peer-to-peer pillars like LocalMonero, which shut down in 2024 under the legal pressure of U.S. prosecutions against privacy tool developers. By 2026, the exile had become nearly absolute, even in regions like South Korea, where the government used exchange ledger errors as a pretext to implement a blanket ban on any coin that cannot be audited by the state. These combined moves have effectively cut Monero off from the traditional banking system.

Removed From Wallets

Crypto wallets have systematically purged Monero to avoid regulatory pressure, effectively soft-banning the asset for mainstream users. A major blow occurred in August 2025 when Exodus, one of the most popular crypto wallets, abruptly terminated Monero support across its apps, forcing users to manually export private keys just to access their funds.

Even the big hardware wallets like Ledger and Trezor are playing games, letting you store the coins, but refusing to show your Monero balance in their main apps (Ledger Live or Trezor Suite). This forces users to rely on “bridge” software like Feather Wallet or the Monero GUI, which is too much work for the average person and keeps Monero hidden away. Meanwhile, mainstream apps like Trust Wallet and MetaMask will not even touch the coin, effectively blacklisting it from the most popular tools people use to hold crypto.

While they are not always directly forced by regulators, many of these wallets and services choose to do this on their own. They often view Monero as unimportant to their business and prefer not to risk drawing regulatory attention or getting on the bad side of authorities. Instead of stating this directly, they typically provide weak excuses, just like Exodus did, for example. We find that cowardly, and arguably worse than exchanges delisting the cryptocurrency, as those actions were at least clearly forced by regulators.

Conclusion

Privacy coins like Monero are a massive pillar of the darknet and a fundamental tool for privacy in the digital age. As one would expect, governments hate that, and so they use their power, whether regulatory or otherwise, to try to impact them. This article looked at just a few examples of governments, exchanges, and other crypto infrastructure providers targeting privacy coins, with the reason being one common theme: their opposition to your privacy. Feel free to contact us using the form in the footer if you believe we missed any good examples or got something wrong.