Goodbye exchange platforms? A part of the Monero community wants all holders to withdraw their XMR from centralized marketplaces. They accuse the latter of not having the necessary reserves to honor their sales. Let’s take a closer look at this protest movement.
The Monero community calls for the withdrawal of its XMR from the exchange platforms
The reason the Monero community chose today as the date for a massive XMR withdrawal is because it is the eighth anniversary of the launch of the anonymous cryptocurrency. A few days ago, Seth Simmons, a Monero enthusiast and strong privacy advocate, explained that he suspected that exchange platforms might not own all the XMR they were selling.
According to him, and several other members of the Monero community, centralized exchange platforms could indeed be selling XMR that they don’t own, relying on the fact that buyers will leave their cryptocurrencies in their accounts, without withdrawing them. This would of course be made possible by the anonymity of the Monero network, which unlike Bitcoin, for example, does not allow tracking of all transactions.
According to Monero enthusiasts, massively withdrawing its XMRs from exchange platforms would thus force them to indirectly admit this state of affairs, and thus to buy some, in order to meet investors’ demands.
Will the “Monerun” be followed?
The idea was started on Reddit by user bawdyanarchist. He notes that many exchange platforms have already shown their hostility towards XMR, by delisting the cryptocurrency, or simply banning withdrawals. So he wants to force their hand:
“Monero’s obfuscated ledger has allowed some exchange platforms to misrepresent the status of their reserves, and sell XMR that they don’t actually own. This is in the knowledge that far too many of us will never withdraw, and no one can see the on-chain evidence of their misdeeds.”
Given the nature of XMR, it will of course not be possible to see on the blockchain to what extent the movement will be followed today. Possible suspensions of withdrawals on exchange platforms could, however, give an indication if they occur, and confirm what the community is saying.
