Secret (SCRT)’s Disgraceful Rise

The privacy-focused altcoin boosted its performance and managed to attract attention after rumors emerged that privacy-focused cryptocurrencies would be banned in Europe.

Privacy-focused cryptocurrencies are facing increasing pressure from regulators in Europe and the US, including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF is trying to enforce a “travel rule” that forces governments to share credentials on cryptocurrency exchanges, banks, over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks, and hosted wallets holding cryptocurrencies worth more than $10,000.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Ethereum-based crypto mixing service Tornado.cash weeks before the developer behind the open-source protocol was arrested in the Netherlands, prompting backlash from crypto privacy advocates. Crypto think tank Coin Center has appeared to be suing the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for sanctions. Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, said:

“Not only are we fighting for privacy rights, but if this precedent is allowed to continue, OFAC could sanction any protocols like Bitcoin or Ethereum in the future, thereby banning them immediately without any public action. This situation is unquestionably unacceptable.”

Secret (SCRT) Rises

Secret (SCRT) is a privacy-focused network built on top of the Cosmos (ATOM) network with end-to-end encryption and smart contracts called “Secret Contracts”. The network aims to enable users to make any coin or Blockchain private by encrypting details like token balance and sending/receiving wallet addresses after they are exchanged for Secret Tokens. The project also “parks” coins / tokens from other Blockchains in a smart contract on the source chain using “Hidden Bridges” and then converts them into Secret Tokens by issuing an equivalent amount of tokens on the Secret network.

With the rest of the cryptocurrency market consolidating at local lows, SCRT suddenly went parabolic from $0.64 to $1.29 on November 16. With this price action, the altcoin rose 101 percent in less than a day. SCRT, which has since withdrawn a bit, is trading at $0.839, with an increase of close to 11 percent recorded in the last 24 hours at the time of this writing.