Monero (XMR), a popular privacy-centric cryptocurrency that rose to prominence after the now-defunct darknet market AlphaBay started accepting it, has been outperforming the cryptocurrency ecosystem’s other privacy coins.
According to available data, the cryptocurrency has fallen by about 63.2% in the last 6 months, as it’s currently trading at $45.6 after falling 0.8% in the last 24-hour period. Its all-time high was of little over $470.
Despite its price performance, Monero has seen various developments. Last year, a hard fork saw it include ‘bulletproofs’ on its network, which significantly lowered transaction fees. This, in turn, saw cryptocurrency exchanges slash their withdrawal fees.
Its privacy-centric nature has made XMR attractive to criminals, who have mined it with other people’s CPU resources in cryptojacking incidents. Recently, criminals demanded a $10 million ransom in XMR after kidnapping the wife of a wealthy Norwegian businessman.
Following XMR’s performance was Dash, a cryptocurrency that has been focusing on increasing its adoption in countries like Venezuela, where cryptocurrencies are being seen as an alternative to the country’s fiat currency. Recently, it was reported Dash-enabled smartphones were booming in the country.
Dash has, in the last 6 months, seen its price drop by about 69.1%. Its all-time high was of about $1,500, and it’s currently trading at $71.
Zcash (ZEC), a cryptocurrency that, by default, doesn’t offer the privacy XMR does, fell by about 74% in said period. It’s trading at $54.3 after falling from a high of well over $500. Its all-time high was reached right after it launched, as it unleashed a trading frenzy that saw traders pay over $30,000 for one ZEC.
During said period, ZEC’s price was influenced by reports claiming it offers its users unmatched privacy capabilities, and by a Coinbase Pro listing that helped it surge over what some in the industry have called the ‘Coinbase effect.’
Verge (XVG), a controversial privacy-centric cryptocurrency that has partnered with MindGeek, the company behind top adult websites like Pornhub, after raising $3 million worth of XVG, is the worst performing in the group.
In the last 6 months, XVG has lost 74% of its value. It’s currently trading at $0.0066 per token after falling from an all-time high of about $0.3 in late 2017. Since it reached its peak, the cryptocurrency has been exploited by hackers and suffered 51% attacks.
Bitcoin, as visible in the image above, has outperformed all these cryptocurrencies, as it dropped 50% in the last 6-month period. It’s currently trading at $3,650, after falling from an all-time high near $20,000.
