Kraken Cuts Off XMR, ZEC and DASH in the UAE: What Holders Should Do
2026-09-18
On 14 September 2026 Kraken closed the last door for its UAE customers holding seven assets. Withdrawals of Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), Dash (DASH), USDD, Dai, USDS and Ethena USDe ended at 14:00 UTC, and anything still on the platform was scheduled for liquidation between 15 and 25 September. If you were one of those users, the coins are already gone or already sold. The wider lesson is worth more than the deadline itself.
What actually happened, and when
Kraken announced the UAE removal on 1 June 2026. Margin positions in the seven assets were closed on 15 June and deposits, trading and margin access were switched off the day after, leaving customers roughly three months to withdraw. The final withdrawal cut-off was 13:59 UTC on 14 September; remaining balances were to be liquidated over the following ten days. Kraken's notice described the removals as part of routine asset reviews rather than pointing at a specific rule.
Why privacy coins keep disappearing from regulated venues
Three of the seven assets — XMR, ZEC and DASH — are privacy coins, and they are the ones with a pattern behind them. Regulated exchanges have been offboarding them for years because transaction-traceability duties and privacy-by-design are difficult to reconcile. In the EU the same pressure arrives in law: MiCA licensing requirements became enforceable in January 2026, and the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation's Article 79 restriction on anonymity-enhancing assets applies from 10 July 2027. None of this makes holding or sending privacy coins illegal for individuals — it restricts what licensed custodians may offer.
The part that catches people out: custody, not the coin
Every story like this has the same shape. Your coins were on someone else's balance sheet, that company changed its policy, and a countdown started that you did not set. The asset did not fail; the account did. That is why the practical response to a delisting notice is never 'find another exchange to hold it for me' — it is to move the balance into a wallet whose keys you hold, and then decide what to do with it at your own pace.
Where SwapRocket fits — and where it doesn't
SwapRocket never holds your coins. A swap runs wallet to wallet: you send from your own wallet, the coins you asked for land in the wallet you named, and there is no balance left with us to freeze, review or liquidate. Monero, Zcash and Dash are all routable here, and crypto-to-crypto swaps need no account and no identity documents. What we cannot do is undo a liquidation that already happened on another platform, or promise a particular venue will still support an asset next year. Treat self-custody as the durable part and any exchange — including this one — as plumbing you pass through.
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Ready to swap? Here's exactly what to do
Three steps, no account and no ID. SwapRocket compares live rates across every connected provider and sends the coins straight to your own wallet.
- 1Pick the pair and the amount you want to exchange — the widget shows the compared rate before you commit.
- 2Paste the wallet address that should receive the funds, then confirm the quote.
- 3Send your deposit to the address shown. The swap settles automatically, usually in minutes.
Non-custodial: SwapRocket never holds your coins and never asks for an account.