Analysts at TRM Labs have observed a shift in trends within the darknet: illegal marketplaces are increasingly adopting the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero.
According to their report, nearly half of the shadowy platforms launched in 2025 exclusively operated with this token.
Experts attribute this trend to law enforcement's success in tracking Bitcoin and stablecoins. Under regulatory pressure, criminals are compelled to seek assets that are harder to link to real identities.
Impact on Price and Liquidity
Interest in Monero has been fueled by significant incidents. In January, unknown individuals stole over $200 million from a crypto wallet and began converting the funds into XMR. According to Chainalysis, this surge in buying pressure led to a 60% spike in the coin's price within just four days, resulting in a new all-time high.
Although the price corrected after peaking, Monero has risen by 51% over the year, outperforming both Bitcoin and Ethereum.
This growth occurred despite widespread delistings of the asset on centralized platforms. After Binance and other major exchanges removed trading pairs with XMR, trading volumes shifted to decentralized platforms with less stringent listing rules.
Technical Changes
Currently, Monero employs ring signatures, mixing real transactions with 15 fake inputs. This complicates, but does not eliminate, blockchain analysis.
Justin Ehrenhofer from NAXO commented to Bloomberg that authorities can use exchange withdrawal metadata to deanonymize users.
However, developers are preparing a major update — the implementation of Full-Chain Membership Proofs Development. This will increase the number of potential senders from 16 to millions. Paul Sibeniak, head of CryptoForensic Investigators, believes this upgrade will render attempts to identify the real sender futile.
Ideology vs. Law
Supporters of the coin view the interest from criminals as a testament to the technology's effectiveness. Douglas Tuman, founder of the marketplace XmrBazaar, stated that wrongdoers choose XMR because it functions as "true untraceable digital cash."
Monero developer Luke Parker emphasized that the project's goal is to protect the right to privacy without oversight from banks and governments.
At TRM Labs, they acknowledge the complexity of the situation. According to Ari Redbord, head of policy, the main challenge for the industry is to ensure privacy for law-abiding users without empowering criminals.
It’s worth noting that in October 2025, Monero developers released the Flourine Fermi client (v0.18.4.3), which improved defenses against so-called spy nodes.