Community members for privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero are planning to simultaneously withdraw their holdings from a series of exchanges in an effort to prove that the exchanges are selling Monero that they don't actually possess.

The self-described "Monerun"—as in bank run—is planned for Monday 18 April, which is also Monero's 8th birthday. 

"April 18th. We're withdrawing XMR from exchanges. Any exchange that hasn't disabled withdraws (which many of them have already), we're pulling our funds," user "bawdyanarchist" wrote on Reddit on Thursday.

Do you know anything else about this mass withdrawal plan? We'd love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on jfcox@jabber.ccc.de, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.

The reason for this stunt calls back to Monero's privacy-enhancing features. Whereas Bitcoin transactions are easily traceable on its blockchain, Monero is more resistant to tracking, which has made it attractive to cybercriminals although its adoption lags far behind Bitcoin and Ethereum. This tracking resistance has led to the theory that exchanges are using the opacity to sell Monero they don't own and generate cash for themselves, creating the need for a kind of community-led audit of their reserves.