BTSE Adds Monero Futures Trading To Its Crypto Service

Monero, along with things like Zcash, has been something that most exchanges avoid entirely. The privacy-focused nature of these cryptocurrencies makes regulating it a very complicated process. Even so, some crypto exchanges dare to become a pioneer and offer something no exchange before has provided. BTSE, a multi-currency exchanged based in Dubai, announced that they would add Monero to their futures trading platform.

Small Pools Making Big Waves

BTSE is relatively unknown. It’s a low-volume trading platform licensed by the Government of Dubai’s Department of Economic Development. It’s also under the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates’ regulations. This makes BTSE’s decision to add Monero futures trading all the more surprising.

The privacy coin, while popular, has been delisted from a large number of cryptocurrency exchanges. Monero is a hard thing to regulate due to its inherent focus to ensure privacy. Even with Monero’s proven longevity, the intentional obfuscation of its user base will always make exchange platforms uncomfortable.

More Regulation, More Criminals Elsewhere

The irony of the matter is the increased regulations of cryptocurrencies are naturally leading criminals to make use of things like monero and similar privacy coins. It builds a cumulative effect where a coin that was already an unattractive choice is now an outright bad one due to the activity on it.

CipherTrace is one of the many blockchain analysis firms working hard in tandem with law-enforcement and crypto regulators to try and track an ever-growing number of cryptocurrencies. Oddly enough, Monero and Zcash aren’t listed as one of the monitored tokens, but they are two of the most popular privacy-focused coins.

Jonathan Leong, the Chief Executive Officer of BTSE, is convinced that one of the digital currency’s strongest characteristics is its privacy. He explained that their listing of Monero futures could act as a baseline for other authorities to determine the best practices for privacy-focused coins like Monero.

A Possible Pioneer

He stated that through listing Monero, BTSE hopes to provide its users with a greater range of choices in terms of their trading needs. BTSE wants to start international conversations on how a privacy coin could be listed in a regulated environment.

This is indeed an interesting conversation to have. It is true that privacy-focused coins are more than likely harboring a larger than average amount of criminal activity. However, many privacy-oriented individuals have activities they don’t want to be seen but aren’t inherently illegal. An example would be that in some places, the use of cannabis is legal, but there’s a social stigma on it. Some particularly paranoid individuals would pay for it, but try and cover their trail as much as possible.

One thing that’s for sure is that exchanges that list these coins will have a larger and larger profit as more exchanges let them go, but also run a higher risk of being implicated in some grand money laundering scheme.