As you already know by now, privacy coins such as Monero have been the center of scrutiny and controversy, and regulators have been claiming that the privacy-related features that are flaunted by these digital assets might enable activities such as money laundering, terrorist financing and many more.
Changelly is a platform that has been trading XMR for a while now, and it’s seen by many as the go-to option for instant crypto-to-crypto transactions.
Changelly, accused of withholding XMR
For a long time, more and more Redditors have been complaining that the platform is withholding their XMR due to the high-risk KYC concerns.
A year ago, Changelly’s spokesperson told the online publication TheNextWeb that the platform withholds suspicious transactions. The funds are usually held until users provide further data.
“To all Monero community, our risk management system doesn’t mark all transactions out of the blue,” the spokesperson explained.
They continued and said that “[…] Monero is the crypto that hides a sender and recipient, thus making transactions untraceable. This [is] a reason why big amounts of other currency got to be checked [sic] before [it’s] converted to XMR.”
Changelly accused of refusing to acknowledge refusal to KYC
Now, a Redditor accuses Changelly of withholding their XMR and refusing to acknowledge their refusal to offer further information.
The persona details that about a week ago, they tried to exchange more than 70 ETH for Monero (XMR).
The transaction was reportedly put on hold by Changelly, and the user sent an e-mail to support, telling the platform that they are refusing to KYC for Monero.
What’s interesting is that this Redditor claims to have had success in transacting XMR so far by now.
“Changelly won’t tell me specifically what they find suspicious about my transaction after telling them I own all the wallets involved with my Ethereum transactions. I’ve provided explanations several times over email, which they also refuse to acknowledge…They won’t acknowledge my refusal to KYC and formal withdrawal from any and all agreements with Changelly and their KYC provider SubSum…” the user writes.
Later on, the Redditor continued and explained, “I’ve provided my name and country – they still won’t cancel or release. I’m not sending anybody my ID for XMR, it’s a privacy coin.”
When the user told support that they are refusing KYC, the answer that they got was: “The refund is not announced, too. Normally, we just keep on investigating.”
You can see the dialogue between the Redditor and the support rep called Grace below.
Then they continued:
Changelly, a Czech-based crypto exchange platform seems to have reinforced its security measures towards XMR hodlers, and the accounts that look suspicious to them have the XMR frozen until KYC verification is complete.
On the other hand, this goes against the very nature of Monero, which is a digital asset based on complete privacy and anonymity – ideas that stood as a foundation for Satoshi Nakamoto’s original concept of Bitcoin.
