Key Highlights
- Even with fewer exchanges, Monero users stay active, proving privacy demand outweighs convenience in crypto trading.
- About 48% of new darknet markets now run exclusively on Monero, showing its continued niche for anonymous transactions.
- Monero’s network behavior shows quirks that could reveal patterns, but strong encryption keeps real-world privacy intact.
The on-chain activity on privacy-focused blockchain Monero has stayed robust despite major exchange delistings and regulatory pressure. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reported that transaction levels in 2024 and 2025 remain higher than pre-2022 figures.
According to the report, there is increasing relevance of Monero’s native coin XMR as the usage of privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies continues, despite the reduction in support from mainstream services. As TRM Labs pointed out, “Despite exchange delistings and enforcement pressure, XMR activity on Monero remains above pre-2022 levels.”
The data shows a shift in the crypto market. Monero continues to see steady use because many people value privacy, while Bitcoin and stablecoins dominate more transparent, mainstream markets. In 2025, almost half of the new darknet marketplaces accepted Monero. So even though major exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and OKX offer less access, Monero users keep actively trading.
Strong adoption despite liquidity constraints
Over the past few years, more than 70 exchanges reportedly delisted Monero. As a result, trading for XMR mostly moved to smaller or offshore platforms. This partly explains why ransomware groups still prefer Bitcoin for payments, even when they offer discounts for Monero.
Bitcoin is more easily bought, sold, and transferred in large quantities, although it is more traceable. Conversely, Monero’s market is smaller and less liquid, making its price two and a half times more volatile than Bitcoin.
Despite the limited choices available on large exchanges, Monero’s on-chain transaction volume has not decreased. According to TRM Labs, this indicates that the demand is not from people who are looking for anonymity but from those who specifically want privacy. Furthermore, Monero’s use in darknet markets indicates its continued use in a particular environment.
Network behavior and privacy insights
Beyond market trends, in terms of Monero’s network itself, TRM Labs, in collaboration with academics, analyzed its peer-to-peer network. The two discovered that around 14-15% of the nodes in the network were acting in an unexpected manner, with unusual patterns of connectivity, peer lists, and infrastructure.
These quirks don’t break Monero’s encryption, but they show that the way the network runs in real life can affect privacy. As a result, analysts and investigators need to consider both the protocol and how it’s actually used day to day.
The network study showed that a small number of nodes handle most of the traffic. This setup could let observers spot transaction patterns, showing that privacy relies on strong encryption and how the network operates in practice. TRM Labs stressed that their findings “describe how peers behave, not why they behave that way.”
Market performance overview
At the time of writing, as per CoinMarketCap data, XMR was trading at $337.02 with a market cap of $6.22 billion and a daily volume of $68.88 million. The other privacy coins are mixed in their performance. Zcash (ZEC) is up 22.82% for the week, while Dash (DASH) is up 6.43%. Decred (DCR), on the other hand, is down 9.61%. Verge (XVG) is up 3.84% for the week.
Monero’s consistent on-chain activity shows that people still value privacy in cryptocurrencies. Even with fewer exchanges and limited liquidity, XMR continues to hold strong.
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