While crypto regulation continues to heat up, the spotlight is starting to shine more on players like Monero (XMR-USD). The Monero network provides one of the industry’s largest and most popular privacy coins. As a result of this offering, the XMR crypto has fallen under scrutiny by more wary crypto regulators and bears. At the same time, though, Monero fans harbor similar feelings toward the centralized bodies driving crypto legislation and broader adoption. Today, we see this community go to work, looking to shed light on how centralized exchanges (CEXs) are handling XMR transactions.
The Monero network stands to make crypto transactions completely private. It uses a variety of technologies to obfuscate XMR traders’ identities in order to do this. For example, users can utilize stealth addresses to make themselves less trackable. Or, they can hide the amount they send or receive in a transaction from appearing on the blockchain. The goal of this is to make XMR a seamless, fungible digital currency.
In this quest for fully anonymous transactions, Monero has found its fair share of enemies. Many of these enemies include lawmakers, who argue that technology like Monero’s opens up the floodgates for criminal activity on the blockchain. Indeed, those like U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren have long waged ware against cryptocurrency, calling it a means for money laundering and drug trafficking. Monero falls directly into the crosshairs of these takes, due to its proud fungibility.
XMR Crypto Sees Upside as Monero Users Test CEX Reserves
Thanks to the rocky relationship between Monero and the powerful authorities who stand in opposition to privacy coins, XMR crypto holders have voiced skepticism toward the way centralized entities handle their favorite coin.
Indeed, talk is heating up among Monero users regarding a lack of transparency over how CEXs handle XMR transations. These users assert that CEXs do not accurately or openly disclose the XMR reserves that they hold on their platforms. Moreover, XMR bulls are quite angry that many of these CEXs are barring the trading of XMR altogether. Of course, these actions fall in line with bearish regulators’ desires to derail privacy coins.
This chatter is fueling a fair bit of XMR price action today. Over the weekend, Monero users had coordinated a “bank run” set for this morning. The bank run sees Monero users withdrawing XMR holdings from centralized trading platforms en masse, to see whether the exchanges are being truly accurate in their reserve figures.
As we get into the day, it looks like this event has begun. Trading volume of the XMR crypto is up 140%, with over $350 million in XMR trading hands. It appears that Monero users are primarily targeting Binance (BNB-USD), KuCoin (KCS-USD), Gate.io, Kraken and Huobi as a part of the run. Indeed, these platforms are seeing the highest trading volumes. Meanwhile, the action is helping to lever the coin up by about 7%, taking prices over $250.
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
