In this educational guide, we’re going to explore the altcoin and blockchain named Monero (XMR). We’ll cover its fundamentals and planned roadmap, so you can use it to make your own price prediction.
Monero functions as a native blockchain that preserves privacy and aids in completely anonymous value transfer. Monero achieves this through the use of technology known as ring signatures, stealth addresses, confidential transactions, and bulletproofs.
As of the time of writing, XMR currently ranks in the #38 of top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Let’s explore the value, implementations, and price of Monero’s native XMR coin.
What is Monero and how does it work?
Monero was first launched in 2014 with the goal of allowing for fully private and anonymous transactions that cannot be traced. In contrast to Bitcoin, whose ledger is instead pseudonymous and public which allows for the tracing of payments based on publicly known transaction data, XMR is designed to obscure senders and recipients alike through the use of advanced cryptography.
Monero was designed for privacy and security first and foremost. The way the Monero blockchain works, it also allows for quick and inexpensive payments to be made. The technology Monero uses to achieve this privacy is distinctive: each XMR is fungible and details about senders, recipients, and payment amounts are obscured.
The obfuscation is achieved through the use of “ring signatures” which involve using past transaction outputs to act as decoys on the blockchain, so observers of the Monero blockchain cannot tell who signed it. Stealth addresses are also created for every single transaction and these addresses are only used once.
As a result, Monero has become more known to be used for illicit and illegal transactions over Bitcoin, such as on Darknet markets. There are currently active bounties offered by tax authorities and governments around the world for anyone who is able to crack Monero’s code.
XMR Coin
XMR is the native coin of the Monero blockchain and the coin is used to make payments on the Monero network for transactions.
Since Monero is a proof-of-work network using Nakamoto Consensus, it does not offer native staking. The network instead uses miners to solve computational puzzles to generate new blocks using the RandomX proof-of-work algorithm.
Token Distribution
There was no ICO or token sale for XMR and no XMR coins were premined. After initially forking the codebase of a project called Bytecoin, a group of seven developers created Monero and launched the project in April 2014.
There will eventually be a total of ~18.3 million XMR in circulation and this cap is expected to be reached on May 31, 2022. After this time, miners will be incentivized using “tail emissions,” with a small amount of XMR being fed into the system every 60 seconds as a reward, instead of using transaction fees.
While this makes XMR inflationary, the emission type is decreasing in issuance and only comes from mining rewards. The block reward constantly decreases and when it reaches 0.6 XMR per block in 2022, the block reward will no longer decrease and 0.6 new XMR will be created in every future block.
This stated tail emission will have the effect of providing Monero with a small and perpetually decreasing rate of annual supply issuance to the point where issuance becomes negligible. Thus, Monero has an extremely low inflation rate that is lower than many other cryptocurrencies, and its inflation rate is a way to replace lost coins in circulation over time.
Monero (XMR) Price History & Technical Analysis
As of the time of writing, in April 2022, the price of XMR is at $217.7, with a market capitalization of $3.9 billion USD.
The total value of Monero’s network is meant to grow with more demand for and usage of the network and the demand for the XMR coin for privacy and payments usage on the network.
While XMR is not capped and is technically unlimited in its coin supply, the new rate of XMR being generated continually decreases until it reaches the total supply noted at 18.3 million XMR. Then, the new issuance drops to only 0.6 XMR per minute. This supply and issuance may even be changed by voting and by Monero’s developers.
While address growth alone does not necessarily translate to the growth of users, it is still a way to gauge growth. Metcalfe’s Law states that the value of a network is directly related to the number of users of that network.
What Expert Analysts say about Monero:
- CRYPTOPOLITAN says, "Currently, the Monero price is $298, but by the end of 2022, the Monero price is expected to soar to the $460 level.”
- Coinpedia says, "Monero might commence the year with a trading price of between $250 to $300. The price is expected to continue with the rally and reach the mark of $500 by the end of August. The altcoin could plunge a little and trade around $710 by the end of October and maintain a similar pattern till the end of 2022. However, the XMR price might end up trading at an average price of $617.”
- DigitalCoinPrice notes, “In 2022, XMR could surpass the price level of $280. By the end of the year, the minimum trading value of one coin might be around $315.25. Moreover, XMR could reach a maximum price level of $372.51 this year.”
Monero Partnerships
Monero has listed a few businesses on its website that actively support the Monero project in its goal to bring financial privacy to the world.
These businesses include Tari Labs, Symas which sponsors its CTO for his work on the Monero codebase, Fork Networking which provides a server used for development, and Mac Stadium which sponsors a dedicated Mac Mini that is used for Mac-related development.
There are only a few merchants that accept Monero and Monero is used actively on the darkweb. However, there exist online P2P exchanges that users can use to exchange and trade their Monero. One such exchange is called Local Monero, which is an online P2P exchange that offers person-to-person trades, Bisq which is a decentralized P2P exchange based on Bitcoin and Tor, and Hodl Hodl which is a P2P trading platform with non-custodial escrow.
As far as centralized exchanges go, only a handful support Monero: Kraken, Binance, and Bitfinex. Prominent investors in Monero include Asymmetry Asset Management, Boost VC, Electric Capital, LuneX Ventures, Myriad Capital Management, Astronaut Capital, Parallax Digital, The Hive Index, Galaxy Digital, and Block Ventures, among others.
Monero Price Prediction: 2022-2026
Monero’s price first took off spectacularly in the 2017-2018 cryptocurrency bull run, reaching a peak of about $460 for XMR. It then collapsed and stayed below $120 until the crypto markets took off again during 2021. The peak was higher in May 2021, reached above $500 for a single XMR coin, and the price has been trading downwards since then.
The good news is, even despite the bearish price pressure in the overall crypto markets as of 2022, the XMR price still has not lost the support area of $120 which was its resistance during the crypto market’s lull from 2018-2020.
As long as the XMR coin price remains above this $120 critical support area, it can form a new pattern and start seeing some bullish price pressure. It’s very hard to say when investors can expect the previous all-time-high of $517.62 to be breached, or whether a greater economic contraction will occur that leads to overall losses in the cryptocurrency markets. If a contraction occurs and the XMR price loses the $120 area, we expect it to take even longer for a new high to be reached. Otherwise, we expect new highs to happen sometime before 2025, with investors and traders getting in as close to $120 to invest in the XMR coin being the best off.
Monero Price Prediction 2022
With the price of XMR continuing to respect the crypto bear market highs of $120 as a new support zone for this cycle, we expect to see continued growth in Monero’s use case and adoption as more individuals are drawn to financial privacy.
This is the reason that makes analysts predict that Monero will see above its previous all-time high of $517 potentially during 2022 even, but this is dependent on whenever the crypto market resumes its bullish price action. Keep in mind this could also take longer, depending on the overall crypto market cycle and other strong catalysts in store for Monero such as protocol changes due to governance.
Monero Price Prediction 2023
With the growing necessity for financial privacy in the face of permissioned DeFi and advanced blockchain forensics being able to track and trace all transactions, more and more people and traders may be drawn to using completely anonymous blockchains like Monero. If this happens, this will surely contribute positively to the Monero price.
In this case, we expect to see the XMR price to reach $600-700 by 2023, provided the overall cryptocurrency markets and economy does not lose steam.
Monero Price Prediction 2024
While there are no other strong catalysts or partnerships in store for Monero that can be seen yet, the overall growth of the cryptocurrency markets may contribute to the protocol’s growth as well in addition to greater needs for financial privacy.
The market capitalization alone remains at only $3.9 billion in April 2022, and a conservative 4-5x to reach $15.6-$19.5 billion in market cap by 2024 would put the XMR price at $860-$1085 or higher by 2024.
It’s not unreasonable to see Monero hit these prices by 2024 with continued user growth and expansion. Of course, this is also provided the overall crypto market remains bullish and we can avoid an economic downturn and bear market overall.
Monero Price Prediction 2025
2025 is still far away at the time of this writing. The continued usage trends and developmental challenges in blockchain, and the advance in blockchain forensics that may even render the Monero blockchain traceable by then, are uncertain to extrapolate that far out, however Monero has been backed by prominent firms as investors and is still untraceable as per forensics.
Plus, the need for financial privacy in blockchain will only continue to increase with greater adoption of blockchain and even the introduction of central bank digital currency (CBDC). We predict we will see Monero at $1100 or above by 2025.
Monero Price Prediction 2026
The crypto market overall could very well be worth $10T or even as high as $15T in total market capitalization by 2026. Depending on regulations and the overall cycles of the economy, we may see Monero as high as $1200-1300 by 2026.
None of these predictions are financial advice, and are educated guesses as to where Monero’s price may be at each time interval. It should be noted that any major financial hack of the protocol, ability to render its privacy considerations nonexistent, cease in development, or other black swan events could impact these predictions significantly.
Monero (XMR): Conclusion Price Prediction
Monero is a top blockchain investment choice for users and investors concerned with undergoing fully private and anonymous transactions on the blockchain. It is regarded as the most advanced and untraceable privacy cryptocurrency on the market to this day.
It’s clear why XMR is a choice for any investor who believes that this need for financial privacy will only increase over time as governments and forensic surveillance become more ubiquitous in their tracking, for better or for worse.
Some may be hesitant to commit their money into an asset for an extended period of time due to the extreme volatility and risk of the cryptocurrency markets. However, it’s very likely that Monero will continue to be a lasting cryptocurrency along with other classics and do well as an investment for years to come.
FAQs
How is Monero gaining traction?
Monero is gaining traction thanks to it being the longest standing and most prominent privacy coin in the cryptocurrency markets today. Monero uses advanced cryptography to aid in completely anonymous value transfer and prevent any party from knowing a user’s name and origination.
Investors and market participants are interested in its coin, XMR, due to its unique technological advantages, its original supply cap being reached this year, and finally due to the overall social atmosphere of increasing financial surveillance that is leading some to seek other solutions for privacy.
Because the overall market believes in the technology Monero offers, the price continues to hold and increase over the long term thus far.
Where can I Buy Monero?
XMR, the coin, can be bought and traded only on select centralized exchanges since it’s restricted by some major ones due to regulatory uncertainty, being that it is a completely private coin. However, XMR can be purchased on HitBTC, Binance, WhiteBIT, KuCoin, OKX, and Kraken. It is not available for purchase on US exchanges like Coinbase.
In comparison to other cryptocurrencies, how can Monero secure privacy?
Monero uses a lot of unique technological advantages to secure privacy. In contrast to Bitcoin, whose ledger is instead pseudonymous and public which allows for the tracing of payments based on publicly known transaction data, XMR is designed to obscure senders and recipients alike through the use of advanced cryptography.
For example, each XMR coin is fungible (not unique) and details about senders, recipients, and payment amounts are obscured.
This obfuscation is achieved through the use of “ring signatures” which involve using past transaction outputs to act as decoys on the blockchain, so observers of the Monero blockchain cannot tell who signed it. Stealth addresses are also created for every single transaction and these addresses are only used once.
As a result, Monero is the most private cryptocurrency on the market today and cannot even be tracked by tax authorities of governments or professional blockchain forensics agencies.
Is it possible to stake Monero?
No, XMR cannot be staked in the same way that BTC cannot be staked, since Monero is a proof-of-work blockchain and uses miners to achieve network consensus and validation.
Why is Monero on the rise?
XMR is on the rise thanks to it being the best choice of all the privacy coins in the cryptocurrency markets today. Monero has been around since 2014 and did well during the 2017-2018 bull run, and still stands strong to this day with its technology. Users and investors continue to flock to Monero due to how well it works and its economic structure.
Is Monero completely anonymous?
Yes, unlike any other blockchains, using Monero is completely anonymous. Users should still take care to understand from where they are funding their fiat to buy XMR and where they are buying the XMR themselves, but as far as the Monero blockchain goes, no user data or transaction data can be linked.
Is XMR considered a currency?
Yes, XMR is used to pay for transaction fees on the Monero network.
Is it possible to generate profits with Monero?
Yes, assuming the XMR token increases in price over time with the continued development of the Monero blockchain and its users, it is possible to generate profits by investing in XMR, but not guaranteed due to other factors that can affect the investment and the overall cryptocurrency markets.
All investors must do their own research, due diligence, and ensure that they are comfortable with the amount of risk they are taking. All cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and risky. Always proceed with caution.
Why do people believe in Monero?
Many analysts and investors believe that Monero is the most advanced and sound privacy coin and blockchain network out there today. Its technology has stood the test of time and it continues to do well in price in return.
Is Monero supply limited?
No, the XMR supply is uncapped and not limited. XMR is technically inflationary and has an unlimited supply, but the emissions are set to decrease in issuance and only come from mining rewards.
The block reward constantly decreases and when it reaches 0.6 XMR per block in 2022, the block reward will no longer decrease and 0.6 new XMR will be created in every future block. This is enough to replace lost XMR from circulation but is very low inflation, so for investment purposes, XMR can be considered to be inflationary at a very small capacity, or disinflationary.
How does the Monero team investigate suspicious or fraudulent transactions?
There is no centralized Monero team to investigate suspicious or fraudulent transactions and the protocol is decentralized. Suspicious or fraudulent transactions on Monero also cannot be investigated because of the private and anonymous nature of its blockchain.
DISCLAIMER
This is not financial advice, only observations and speculation. All investors should do their own research and due diligence. The crypto markets are extremely volatile and losing your investment is possible.
