Monero tops $500 for first time since 2021 as Zcash faces leadership crisis

Monero (XMR) surged past the $500 mark for the first time since May 2021, briefly touching $500.66 after rising more than 6% on Sunday and about 20% over the past week, bringing it close to its April 2021 record near $517.50.

The rally came amid turmoil at rival privacy coin Zcash. The Electric Coin Company (ECC) team behind Zcash resigned en masse, citing intolerable working conditions and board disputes over the project's assets and direction, a fallout that exposed deep rifts around the Bootstrap Project and funding allocations. ZEC's price fell by more than 20%, reaching a weekly low of around $360.

Monero also drew support from bullish institutional commentary, with firms such as Grayscale and Coinbase highlighting privacy coins as a growth theme and traders appearing to favour Monero as a cleaner privacy exposure while Zcash was in flux.

Cointelegraph noted that similar breakout attempts for XMR have failed seven times in the past and were followed by corrections of roughly 40% to 95% toward an ascending trendline. As of January, XMR risked a prolonged correction toward $200–$270 unless it decisively breaks above the $500–$520 range; conversely, a sustained breakout above that resistance could open a path toward $775 and a new all-time high this year. The article states it does not contain investment advice and urges readers to conduct their own research.

Key Topics

Crypto, Monero, Zcash, Electric Coin Company, Bootstrap Project, Grayscale