Binance announces TORN delisting. The asset’s rate falls by 59%

What’s new? Binance exchange will delist the native token of cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash (TORN). The service itself has been on the US sanctions list since last August for facilitating the laundering of hacker funds that go to finance the DPRK’s nuclear program. The developers of Tornado Cash are under investigation in the US and the Netherlands. Binance will remove the asset from the platform on December 7, after the publication of the announcement, its exchange rate collapsed by 59% to $1,64.

The exchange’s announcement

What else is known? The specific reason for the removal of TORN is not specified, but based on the announcement, it can be concluded that it no longer meets one or more internal quality criteria. Thus, Binance periodically analyzes the assets available for trading and may remove them in order to protect users.

“When a coin or token no longer meets this standard, or the industry changes, we conduct a more in-depth review and potentially delist it,” explained representatives of the exchange.

The criteria for evaluating projects, among others, are:

• Contribution to ecosystem sustainability
• Creators’ activity, quality of their developments, and interaction with the community
• Network stability and security
• Trading volume and liquidity

As a result of the review, in addition to TORN, a decision was made to delist the assets of BitShares (BTS), PERL.eco (PERL), and Waltonchain (WTC). Support for the assets themselves and trading pairs BTS/USDT, PERL/USDT, TORN/BUSD, WTC/BTC, and WTC/USDT will be terminated on December 7 at 03:00 UTC. At the same time, all relevant trade orders will be deleted and support for assets in the Binance Pay service, gift cards, and trading bots of the exchange will be discontinued.

Deposit of coins will be stopped on December 8 at 03:00 UTC, withdrawal is possible until March 7, 2024, 03:00 UTC. After that, the exchange will automatically convert user account balances into stablecoins.

In August this year, the US Department of Justice accused Tornado Cash co-founders Roman Storm and Roman Semenov of conspiring to launder $1 billion. Storm was detained and later released on bail, Semenov remains at large. Mixer developer Alexey Pertsev was detained in the Netherlands back in August last year on similar charges and will be tried in March 2024.

Binance itself recently entered into an agreement with the US Department of Justice to settle charges of violating sanctions and anti-money laundering regulations. It pledged to pay a $4,3 billion fine and admit US officials to its supervisory board for five years to monitor compliance. In addition, the exchange’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, stepped down as CEO and is awaiting the announcement of the verdict in the case next February.