Monero Surges To Record High, Outperforming Bitcoin – Even As Dubai Moves To Ban Privacy Tokens

• Even after pairing gains, Monera was among the top 20 gainers on Monday morning amid weakness in the broader market.
• Other privacy tokens lagged, with Zcash and Dash posting sharp weekly declines.
• Market watchers noted that XMR’s record high comes after multiple centralized exchanges delisted the token in 2025 due to regulatory pressure.

Monero (XMR) surged nearly 20% on Monday, hitting a fresh record high after five years and outperforming Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency market, even as regulators in Dubai moved to ban privacy-focused digital assets.

Monero’s price climbed to an intraday record above $595, pushing its market capitalization past $10.8 billion for the first time, according to CoinGecko data. The rally overshadowed Monero’s previous peak of $518 set in May 2021.

The token was trading around $575 at the time of writing, retaining most of its gains and ranking among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market value. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Monero flipped to ‘extremely bullish’ from ‘bearish’ over the past day as chatter surged to ‘extremely high’ from ‘high’ levels.

Dubai Bans Privacy Coins

Dubai’s financial regulator implemented its expected ban on privacy coins across the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) on Monday. The updated rules prohibit the use, promotion, trading, and fund activity involving privacy tokens within or from the DIFC, citing heightened anti-money-laundering and sanctions compliance risks.

Monday’s regulatory overhaul also shifts responsibility for token approvals onto crypto firms and tightens the framework governing stablecoins. While the ban applies broadly and was announced in December last year, its implementation coincided with renewed trader interest in privacy-focused assets, particularly Monero.

Why Did Monera Crypto Token Rally?

Data from CoinGecko showed the privacy coin sector rose roughly 3% over the past week. While Monero clocked new highs, Zcash (ZEC) fell by more than 18% over the same period, and Dash (DASH) declined by more than 12%.

Market participants applauded Monero’s relative strength, citing sources that said more than 73 exchanges delisted XMR in 2025 due to regulatory pressure. Binance, for instance, delisted XMR trading pairs in August last year. Many view a driving factor as the lack of access to trade the token, which reduced speculative excess and tightened supply.

Others noted that Monero’s rally could be driven, at least in part, by the core Zcash developer team stepping down last week over a governance dispute with its overseeing nonprofit, Bootstrap.

The overall cryptocurrency market edged 0.4% lower in morning trade on Monday. Bitcoin’s price was back at $90,000 after a short-lived rally on Sunday. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around the apex cryptocurrency dipped to ‘neutral’ from ‘bullish’ over the past day as chatter remained at ‘normal’ levels.

Read also: Jerome Powell Says Trump’s Criminal Threats Are ‘Pretexts’ To Undermine Fed Independence

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.

Share

·

Add us on