The price of the largest cryptocurrency in the privacy sector has updated a record that had held for about five years, amid a lack of growth for Bitcoin and Ethereum.
On January 12, the price of the confidential cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) hit a new record high, reaching almost $598.5 according to the Kraken crypto exchange. Later, the price of XMR fell slightly to around $580. The previous peak was above $517 and was reached in May 2021.
Over the past day, the price of XMR has risen by almost 20%, while the price of XMR's closest competitor, the cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC), has risen by 7%. During the same period, the prices of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) remained virtually unchanged, trading at around $90,500 and $3,100, respectively, according to Coinmarketcap.
Since the beginning of the year, XMR quotes have grown by more than 30%, outperforming many major cryptocurrencies in terms of percentage growth. During this period, BTC grew by almost 2%, and Ethereum by 4%.
XMR's performance since the beginning of 2026 is a continuation of the coin's growth in the previous year, when it became one of the growth leaders among the largest cryptocurrencies on the market. As was the case for most of 2025, the current growth of XMR has not been accompanied by any events or news. The coin grew without institutional capital inflows, as was the case with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, BNB, and others.
XMR ranks 12th among the largest cryptocurrencies on Coinmarketcap with a market capitalization of nearly $10.5 billion and is the largest coin by market capitalization in the privacy sector, ahead of Zcash (ZEC) with $6.6 billion.
For most of the second half of last year, ZEC showed better dynamics than XMR, briefly surpassing it in terms of capitalization. The Zcash price lost momentum in November 2025, reaching a local peak of around $730 — since then, the price has fallen to $400. In early January 2026, pressure on the ZEC price intensified amid the announcement of the departure of one of the cryptocurrency development teams — at that time, the asset's price lost about 20% in a few hours.
Ban on anonymity
With Monero, anonymity is a fundamental and mandatory feature of all transactions, as users cannot choose a different format for sending coins. This has led to its consistent delisting by many major exchanges, including Binance, OKX, and Bybit, due to pressure from regulators. Due to the exchanges' rejection of XMR, liquidity in the trading markets has been falling for a long time.
Attention has been drawn to Monero due to general interest in coins from the privacy sector, despite the risks of regulation, as noted by analysts at 10x Research, according to Coindesk.
For example, on January 12, a ban on private cryptocurrencies, including Monero and Zcash, will come into force by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), according to new rules for the circulation of digital assets in the DIFC international financial zone.
The reason is the inability to ensure transaction transparency and compliance with anti-money laundering and sanctions legislation requirements. But this does not stop confidential cryptocurrencies and their growth.
