In brief

• 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 through late last year, with investors rotating into the segment even as attention centered on Zcash, market participants said.
• Thin and offshore-heavy liquidity may be amplifying price swings, raising caution about short-term moves in assets largely absent from regulated exchanges, Decrypt was told.

Monero surged to a fresh all-time high on Sunday, lifting 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 highest the coin has been in eight years, following a breakout to $542 in January 2018, according to CoinGecko data. The asset is up 24% on the day and a further 40% on the week.

The move extends a trend that began late last year, when privacy-linked tokens proved more resilient than much of the broader crypto market. 

While Zcash drew most of the attention during the fourth quarter, investors had already begun rotating back into privacy-oriented assets, according to market participants.

“Monero’s move to a new high fits with what we’ve been seeing in the privacy segment for a while,” Ryan McMillin, chief investment officer at crypto fund manager Merkle Tree Capital, told Decrypt. “Privacy was one of the few areas that held up relatively well through Q4 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, leaving trading activity concentrated on a smaller number of offshore venues.

“When liquidity is concentrated on exchanges that can list these assets, price discovery can be more fragmented,” he said. “That increases the scope for sharper swings and, at times, potential price manipulation, so I’d be cautious about over-interpreting short-term moves without looking closely at where volume is coming from.”

Beyond near-term trading dynamics, supporters of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies point to a longer-term demand driver. 

As governments tighten restrictions on cash use and increase oversight of payments outside the traditional banking system, tools that preserve transactional privacy may attract renewed interest.

“That doesn’t make the regulatory debate go away,” McMillin said, “but it helps explain why the privacy theme keeps resurfacing.”

The rally in Monero comes as much of the broader crypto market has struggled to establish a clear direction in recent weeks, as sector-specific narratives continue to drive price action even amid periods of uneven risk appetite.

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