According to @Flavio_leMec, the legality of on-chain privacy is in focus for builders and traders alike, raising immediate compliance and liquidity questions for privacy tools and tokens, including ZEC and XMR, and for exchanges serving U.S., EU, and UK users, source: @Flavio_leMec tweet on Nov 20, 2025. In the U.S., the Treasury’s OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash, making interactions with listed mixer addresses sanctionable for U.S. persons and heightening compliance risk for platforms, source: U.S. Treasury OFAC press release, Aug 8, 2022. The U.S. Department of Justice charged Tornado Cash founders with money laundering and sanctions violations, signaling criminal exposure for facilitation of illicit flows, source: U.S. Department of Justice press release, Aug 23, 2023. In the EU, the Transfer of Funds Regulation extends the Travel Rule to crypto-asset service providers, requiring originator and beneficiary data on transfers and pressuring venues to restrict assets and tools that cannot support compliance, source: European Parliament press release on tracing crypto transfers, April 20, 2023. In the UK, the FCA Travel Rule statement requires firms to collect and share beneficiary and originator data when sending or receiving crypto, similarly constraining privacy coins without selective disclosure, source: UK Financial Conduct Authority statement, Aug 17, 2023. FinCEN proposed designating convertible virtual currency mixing as a primary money laundering concern, increasing bank and exchange scrutiny on privacy tooling and flows, source: U.S. FinCEN notice of proposed rulemaking, Oct 19, 2023. Compliance-compatible privacy exists: Zcash supports viewing keys and selective disclosure that enable audits and reporting without public data leakage, which reduces delisting risk versus opaque mixers, source: Electric Coin Company Zcash documentation on viewing keys, official docs accessed 2024. OFAC’s sanctions compliance guidance for the virtual currency industry outlines screening, blocking, and reporting controls that privacy-focused services must integrate to operate lawfully, source: U.S. Treasury OFAC Sanctions Compliance Guidance for the Virtual Currency Industry, Oct 2021. Market outcomes illustrate the trading impact: Binance announced the delisting of XMR in February 2024 amid heightened compliance focus, which reduced centralized venue liquidity for Monero, source: Binance Announcement, Feb 6, 2024. OKX also removed multiple privacy coins in early 2024, reinforcing the pattern of reduced listings and market depth for assets lacking selective disclosure, source: OKX Support Notice, Dec 27, 2023 and Jan 2024 update. Dutch authorities secured a conviction related to Tornado Cash operations in 2024, underscoring European enforcement posture toward opaque mixers and further elevating compliance risk premiums, source: District Court of ’s-Hertogenbosch judgment reported by the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service, May 2024. Taken together, on-chain privacy is possible without breaking the law when protocols implement sanctions screening, selective disclosure, and Travel Rule data transmission, but opaque mixing tools face sustained enforcement and delisting risk that can fragment liquidity and widen spreads for related tokens, source: OFAC 2021 guidance; EU TFR 2023; FCA 2023; FinCEN 2023.