In short
- Monero rose above $592 to an all-time high, standing out as much of the broader crypto market struggled to establish a clear trend.
- Privacy-linked tokens showed relative resilience until late last year, with investors flooding into the segment even as attention focused on Zcash, market participants said.
- The thin and offshore-heavy liquidity could amplify price swings, creating caution about short-term moves in assets that are largely absent on regulated exchanges, Decrypt was told.
Monero rose to a new all-time high on Sunday, pushing the privacy-focused crypto above $592 and reviving a corner of the digital asset market that has largely traded on the sidelines of the latest rally.
That’s the coin’s highest level in eight years, after breaking through to $542 in January 2018, according to data from CoinGecko. The asset is up 24% on the day and another 40% on the week.
This move extends a trend that started late last year, when privacy-linked tokens proved more resilient than much of the broader crypto market.
Although Zcash attracted the most attention in the fourth quarter, investors had already begun to return to privacy-focused assets, according to market participants.
“Monero’s move to a new high fits with what we’ve been seeing in the privacy space for some time,” Ryan McMillin, chief investment officer at crypto fund manager Merkle Tree Capital, told me. Declutter. “Privacy was one of the few areas that held up relatively well in the fourth quarter last year.”
Still, McMillin cautioned that Monero’s price action should be viewed through a market structure lens. Many privacy coins are absent from more regulated, onshore exchanges, concentrating trading activity on a smaller number of offshore platforms.
“When liquidity is concentrated on exchanges that can list these assets, price discovery can be more fragmented,” he said. “That increases the room for sharper swings and, sometimes, potential price manipulation, so I would be careful about overinterpreting short-term moves without looking closely at where the volume is coming from.”
Beyond short-term trading dynamics, proponents of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies point to a longer-term demand driver.
As governments tighten restrictions on the use of cash and increase scrutiny of payments outside the traditional banking system, tools that protect transactional privacy may attract renewed interest.
“That doesn’t make the regulatory debate go away,” McMillin said, “but it does explain why the privacy issue keeps coming up.”
The rally in Monero comes as much of the broader crypto market has struggled to establish clear direction in recent weeks as sector-specific stories continue to drive price action even during periods of uneven risk appetite.
Daily debriefing Newsletter
Start every day with today’s top news stories, plus original articles, a podcast, videos and more.
