Monero (XMR) is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency designed to make transaction amounts and recipient details private by default, while using ring signatures to give senders plausible deniability. Its privacy features are strong but not absolute: the official technical reference describes sender privacy as probabilistic, and network choices such as using a remote node can expose metadata.
| Metric | CoinGecko snapshot |
|---|---|
| Ticker | XMR |
| Price | $614.87 USD |
| Market capitalization | $11,574,560,049 USD |
| 24-hour price change | +6.65% |
| Circulating and total supply | 18,822,013.6547 XMR |
| Maximum supply reported by CoinGecko | Not reported |
| All-time high | $797.73 USD on January 14, 2026 |
| 24-hour trading volume | $105,736,175 USD |
CoinGecko returned this market snapshot on 2026-10-25 UTC. Monero’s protocol has an ongoing tail emission, so this table is not a fixed-supply claim.
Tokenomics
Monero has no fixed maximum supply. After the main emission phase, its protocol pays a permanent tail emission of 0.6 XMR per two-minute block to keep a block reward in place. CoinGecko reported approximately 18.82 million XMR in circulation in the snapshot above; that amount continues to change under the protocol’s emission rules.
How It Works
Ring signatures mix the real input with decoy outputs; Monero’s current technical specification lists a ring size of 16, meaning one real member and 15 decoys. Stealth addresses create one-time output addresses for recipients, while Ring Confidential Transactions hide amounts. These mechanisms reduce what a public blockchain observer can infer, but they do not make every sender impossible to identify in every circumstance.
Protocol privacy is separate from network privacy. Monero’s documentation warns that a remote node may learn a user’s IP address and some transaction-related information. A wallet’s node configuration and use of Tor or I2P therefore affect privacy outside the ledger itself.
Use Cases
XMR is used for payments where transaction confidentiality and fungibility matter. Privacy is useful for legitimate financial discretion, but it is not a guarantee of anonymity or a substitute for secure wallet, device and network practices.
History
- 2014: Monero’s public blockchain launched on April 18; the project documents no premine, ICO or presale.
- 2017: RingCT became active, concealing transaction amounts.
- 2019: Monero adopted RandomX proof-of-work, designed to make general-purpose CPUs more competitive in mining.
- 2022: the main emission phase ended and the 0.6 XMR tail emission began.
Related Terms
See Also
- What Is Tokenomics — And Why It Determines Whether a Crypto Project Survives
- What Happens to Bitcoin When All 21 Million Are Mined?
- How Crypto Invented Its Own Language
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Sources
- Monero Technical Specifications — Monero's technical reference documents ring size, tail emission, RandomX and the privacy properties' stated limits.
- Monero Docs: Remote Nodes and Privacy — The guide explains what remote nodes may learn and why protocol-level privacy does not conceal every network detail.
- CoinGecko markets API snapshot — CoinGecko supplied the market figures in the table as a dated snapshot retrieved on 2026-10-25 UTC.