Binance has placed “monitoring tags” on a slew of coins and tokens — including several major privacy coins — warning that these assets may no longer meet the exchange’s listing criteria.

The world’s largest exchange said in a statement on Thursday that it will extend the monitoring tag to ANT, FIRO, KP3R, MDX, MOB, REEF, VAI, XMR +0.37% , ZEC +0.89% and ZEN.

“Tokens with the Monitoring Tag exhibit notably higher volatility and risks compared to other listed tokens,” Binance said. “These tokens are closely monitored, with regular reviews conducted. Keep in mind that tokens with the Monitoring Tag are at risk of no longer meeting our listing criteria and being delisted from the platform.”

Binance added that users must pass corresponding quizzes every 90 days to gain trading access to these tokens labeled with the monitoring tag.

“The monitoring tag has been placed on FIRO along with other privacy coins due to increased regulatory pressure, including from MiCA, recent initiatives from U.S. regulators and compliance to Binance's settlement with the U.S. DoJ,” Reuben Yap, co-founder of Firo, told The Block. 

“However, we have been in active discussions with Binance on this matter since September 2023 and thus far our proposal to implement Exchange Addresses has been received positively,” Yap added. “We welcome the active dialogue with Binance and their openness to working together to find a mutually beneficial solution and are confident that Exchange Addresses balances exchange compliance requirements without sacrificing user privacy.”

Last week, OKX also took action against coins such as ANT, XMR, ZEC and ZEN. OKX said it would delist several trading pairs, including ANT-USDC, XMR-BTC, XMR-ETH, XMR-USDT, XMR-USDC, ZEC-BTC, ZEC-USDT, ZEC-USDC, ZEN-BTC and ZEN-USDT.

Updates to add comment from Firo.