Monero (XMR) Rallied Over 9% Today, Why?

Monero (XMR) surged to an intraday high of $238.55, extending its gains to 24% since the beginning of the year.

Privacy protocol Monero (XMR) had a strong performance on Feb. 6, surging to an intraday high of $238.55. The token also rallied by 24% since the beginning of the year.

At the time of writing, the privacy-focused coin’s market cap stood at $4.28 billion, ranking it as the 28th largest crypto asset on CoinMarketCap.

What sparked the XMR rally today?

XMR surged after the project showcased the strong performance of its Rust-based Monero node, known as Cuprate.

In blockchain networks, a node is essentially a computer that participates in maintaining the network by verifying and relaying transactions.

With Monero being a decentralized network, the project aims to have more users running full nodes to strengthen its security.

However, syncing the full Moner blockchain takes a long time. While the default Monero node software, monerod, completes a full verification sync in several days, Cuprate speeds up the process.

In comparison to monerod, which took 20 days to fully sync the blockchain during testing, Cuprate managed to complete a fast sync in four hours and a full verification sync in 20 hours.

Despite the faster syncing time, Cuprate still performs independent validation, ensuring that users can run their own full nodes to contribute to the network.

As such, the faster syncing time enabled by Cuprate is crucial for Monero, especially as the project faced challenges with privacy concerns throughout 2023.

Meanwhile, a hotel in Georgia recently announced that it has begun accepting XMR for payments. The adoption of Monero, adding real-world utility to the token, appears to have sparked fresh interest among investors in the crypto asset.

As a privacy coin that faced regulatory challenges, resulting in delistings from multiple exchanges over the past year, Monero's price is also largely driven by community sentiment surrounding the token.

Per data from Santiment, the weighted social sentiment has flipped to positive, indicating that the majority of the community now expects a potential rise in XMR’s price in the short term.

Moreover, interest from derivative traders has also increased for the token. According to CoinGlass data, open interest in the XMR futures market rose by 15.37% over the past 24 hours, reaching $20.98 million. This means more traders are positioning for a potential upside in the token’s price.

XMR technical analysis

On the four-hour XMR/USDT price chart, the altcoin’s price stood above the 50-day and 200-day exponential moving average, which means bulls were dominating the market at the time of writing.

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator also showed bullish strength, with both the MACD and Price oscillator lines rising.

Further, the Relative Strength Index has been moving up over the past 72 hours, at 58 when writing. As such, it is safe to assume that there’s more room for growth in the upcoming sessions.

Over the past week, traders withdrew $8.4 million worth of XMR from centralized exchanges, according to CoinGlass data.

If the current demand sustains, XMR could continue its rally to retest the $241.59 reached earlier this month. A sentiment also shared by well-followed market analyst Barney in a recent XMR post.

“while market is in shambles but monero looks like it wasn't to go for another leg up$XMR pic.twitter.com/scWUbD7IFL”

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