Stephanie Douse 
While most crypto exchanges like Binance have implemented strict KYC and AML guidelines, Litecoin’s new MWEB upgrade makes transactions private.
Binance has announced that it will no longer support Litecoin (LTC) transactions sent via the latest MimbleWimble (MWEB) upgrade.
Binance has warned that any transaction sent via the MWEB function will be lost because the crypto exchange cannot verify the sender’s address. At the time of publication, the cryptocurrency exchange had not responded to the request for comment.
The announcement comes just days after major South Korean crypto exchanges delisted LTC due to the most recent upgrade, which makes transaction information private. The delisting came just weeks after five other cryptocurrency exchanges issued similar warnings to Binance. However, the delisting was not unexpected given that South Korea is known for its strict privacy laws that prohibit anonymous transactions on cryptocurrency exchanges.
One of the critical updates that went live earlier this year, nearly two and a half years after it was first proposed, is the MWEB upgrade on LTC. The upgrade added several privacy features and increased the scalability of the LTC blockchain.
The decision to discontinue support for the MWEB function comes at a time when the leading cryptocurrency exchange has been embroiled in controversy. Reuters recently accused Binance of facilitating $2.5 billion in illegal transactions.
Chagpeng Zhao (CZ), the CEO of Binance, refuted all such claims, citing data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
In addition, the US Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation into Binance’s BNB ICO sale in 2017.
The privacy feature, which was viewed as a significant upgrade, has proven to be a curse for one of the oldest cryptocurrencies. The MWEB upgrade comes at a time when regulatory oversight is at its peak, and privacy features have emerged as the primary focus of regulators worldwide.