By CCN.com: The privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash has fallen by nearly 15 percent this week as Bitcoin’s dominance approaches 70 percent.
According to CoinMarketCap, Zcash was trading at slightly over $66 seven days ago but is now just under $56, a decline of approximately 15 percent that forced its market cap below $400 million.
Among the leading 30 altcoins by market cap, Zcash’s decline is only eclipsed by Maker, a token residing on the Ethereum blockchain.
Zcash’s double-digit decline comes amidst plans by Coinbase UK to delist the privacy coin. This is about ten months since Coinbase Pro first announced support for the coin.
Convert all your Zcash by the 26th – or else
The cryptocurrency exchange reportedly asked its customers in the UK to convert their Zcash holdings into any other crypto or move it to another platform by August 26th. Users who fail to take the prescribed steps will see the Zcash forcibly converted to sterling pounds after the deadline has elapsed.
The move will only affect users of Coinbase UK. Other exchanges in the country remained unaffected, though the delisting has understandably raised questions about Zcash’s regulatory status.
Coinbase UK has yet to explain the move, prompting speculation that it is part of the cryptocurrency exchange’s efforts to access Faster Payments Scheme (FPS), a UK payments system designed to reduce transfer times.
Delisting $ZEC was probably a pre-condition of Coinbase getting access to the UK’s ‘faster payments’ system back …
(i.e. it wasn’t a regulatory requirement, but a banking one)
— Alistair Milne (@alistairmilne) August 12, 2019
Why did Coinbase suspend Faster Payments Scheme?
Late last month the cryptocurrency exchange announced that it was temporarily suspending support for the FPS with regards to deposits and withdrawals being made in the sterling pound.
At the time, Coinbase UK gave no indication that it was planning to delist any coin.
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Talk of a regulatory backlash has, however, been rebuffed by eToro’s senior market analyst, Mati Greenspan, who considers Zcash to be among the most compliant among privacy coins.
Speaking exclusively to CCN.com, Greenspan also cast doubt on Coinbase UK being forced to delist Zcash in order to work with banks and other financial institutions:
“Hard to imagine that any particular financial institution will specifically hinder business operations with Coinbase solely due to their dealings with Zcash in particular, especially given their overall business operations that have exposure to all types of crypto assets.”
The post appeared first on CCN
