• BitBay has announced that Monero will be removed from the platform.
• According to the exchange, the reason for this lies in the possibility of money laundering and financing terrorism.

Privacy Coins offer private transactions that cannot be traced and thus guarantee comprehensive data protection and privacy. Some governments have enacted laws to remove Monero, Dash or Zcash from the offering portfolios of some exchanges. BitBay is now following a similar path.

Exchange BitBay removes Monero

BitBay has announced that Monero will no longer be tradable on the stock exchange from 19 February 2020. The wallet will also be blocked. The schedule is as follows:

• 29.11.2019 – End of XMR deposits support and XMR withdrawals for the time of the XMR network,
• 19.02.2020 – End of trading XMR support and orders cancelation,
• 20.05.2020 – Deadline for XMR withdrawals.

BitBay states that Monero supports anonymity features that can be abused. It was therefore decided to block the possibility of money laundering and inflows from external networks. Monero, as well as other privacy coins such as Dash or Zcash, have already been removed from other crypto currency exchanges for the same reason.

As a licensed exchange, BitBay must follow this market standard and ensure the security of its users:

Compliance with market standards and regulations allows us to provide our clients with legal security and convenience of using the exchange, with the participation of a friendly banking system and the availability of payment operators.

Already in September OKEx started to remove Monero, Dash, Zcash and Horizon as well as Super Bitcoin from the platform. These crypto currencies do not comply with the new guidelines of the Financial Action Task Force, which came into force this summer.

Botnet uses Youtube to mine Monero

A recent report by cyber security company ESET reveals that operators of the Stantino botnet have used Youtube sites and channels to install malware on visitors’ computers. The malware allows hackers to use the victims’ computing power to install a crypto-mining module and make a profit.

In total, more than 500,000 computers are affected. The malware works inconspicuously and opens the task manager to carry out certain activities or remains active when the computer switches to energy-saving mode. As a result, victims usually do not even notice that their computer is infected with malware. Thomas Uhlemann, ESET Security Specialst, explains:

It is not surprising that the criminals behind Stantinko are looking for new ways to further increase financial profits through the botnet. Crypto mining is more profitable and harder to track than their old core adware business.

ESET also describes that it is already in contact with Youtube and that the affected pages have already been removed. However, users still run the risk of a new Stantino botnet being used in the background as it is constantly changing and looking for new ways to find a new host.

Stantino is considered one of the largest botnets in the world. In the past, the hacker group behind Stantino has been able to record numerous thefts of registration data, fraud cases and manipulation of advertising banners on its account. Currently, the problem has been solved for the time being, but all users who use the Internet should have an up-to-date virus program and install all updates regularly.

XMR’s price has risen +8.02% to USD 56.41 in the last 24 hours.

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