On Sunday night, Monero’s XMR reached a new all-time high (ATH) of nearly $600. How can this rise be explained?
Monero’s XMR breaks its all-time high
On Sunday, the price of Monero’s XMR soared, to such an extent that overnight, the asset surpassed its all-time high (ATH) to reach $596.61 per unit.
Despite a slight decline, the asset is still trading at over $565 at the time of writing, up 17.8% over the last 24 hours.
Now, it will be particularly interesting to observe the price action to see how XMR will behave in relation to its previous highs. Indeed, the monthly data chart shows that the ATH in May 2021 at nearly $518 had just managed to exceed that of December 2017 at $469.5. Subsequently, the asset underwent a severe correction, in a context where regulators around the world were increasingly taking a stand against anonymous cryptocurrencies, before finally starting to rise again in the spring of 2024:
To understand the reasons for this rise, we need to look at the collapse of Zcash’s ZEC last week, following the resignation of its team of developers, who ultimately launched a new structure.
Although ZEC has recovered somewhat since then, it is still down 20% since the beginning of the year, and this shift towards XMR has allowed the latter to regain the lead in the confidential currency category. XMR is now capitalized at over $10.5 billion, compared to $6.83 billion for ZEC.
Beyond this momentum, we note that XMR’s surge is part of an upward trend that has lasted for nearly two years, making XMR one of the few altcoins to have stood out in 2025. As privacy concerns become increasingly acute, whether through the implementation of DAC8 in Europe or cryptocurrency-related kidnappings in France, we will be able to see to what extent this will impact the price of XMR in the longer term.
