This week in the crypto world, we saw Monero suffer another delisting, an XRP ETF filing, and NFTs continue their three-year slump.
It’s over, boys.
Kraken Says Bon Voyage to Monero
Crypto OG exchange Kraken this week plunged another dagger into the heart of the privacy coin with the announcement that it has delisted criminals’ privacy advocates’ darling Monero (XMR) in Europe. The exchange revealed that new regulations in the European Economic Area have left it with “no choice” but to remove the coin from its listings, citing “alignment with applicable regulatory and compliance obligations.”
This news will not come as a surprise to many observers, however, who have been watching the death of the privacy coin in real time since their heyday in 2017, with exchange after exchange washing their hands of it in order to stay compliant with regulations.
Bitwise Files for XRP ETF
We should have seen it coming, but it was still a surprise to learn that the most underperforming coin in the history of crypto is wanted for an exchange-traded fund (ETF). Asset management company Bitwise this week submitted an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch an XRP ETF which, if granted, would sit alongside its Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
The move is a ballsy one, given that the SEC is at this moment in time fighting against Ripple Labs on two fronts over its assertion that XRP is a security, a fact that, one would think, leaves this application as nothing more than a PR stunt. However, nothing in the world of crypto surprises us anymore, so who knows?
NFTs are Still F****d
If you’re an NFT holder you won’t need telling, but NFTs are still f****d. A month after 96% of NFTs were declared dead due to near-zero trading activities, it was reported that NFT sales volume has dropped to levels not seen since 2021. According to NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam, NFT sales volume closed the month at slightly above $300 million, over $70 million less than August this year.
The more fervent ringing of the death knell also comes when the floor prices of popular collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club have fallen, casting doubts on whether the NFT volume will ever return to 2021/2022 records. Even a $56 million sale of a CryptoPunk this week cannot disguise the dire state of the market (money laundering, anyone?).
Face it, lads, the JPEGs are done.
