Monero's price has never moved in a straight line. Like the rest of crypto, it has run through repeated boom-and-bust cycles, broadly rising and falling with the wider market and with Bitcoin. Layered on top are Monero's own episodes, mostly driven by regulation. This guide maps that history as a pattern, not a prediction.
There are no price targets here, and no forecast. The point is to show how Monero has behaved across market cycles so that its swings make more sense, while being honest that the past does not tell you where the price goes next.
How to read Monero's price history
The clearest way to understand Monero's price history is in two layers. The first is the broad crypto market cycle, which Monero shares with almost every coin. The second is a Monero-specific overlay of regulatory events, because Monero is private, censorship-resistant digital cash whose access is shaped by rules (source: Monero project, what is Monero).
Keeping those two layers separate is what makes the history readable. Most of the time, Monero rises and falls with the market, so a big move usually reflects crypto-wide sentiment rather than anything specific to Monero. But every so often a regulatory event pushes Monero on its own, against the market's direction. When you see a Monero move, the first useful question is which layer it belongs to. The mechanics behind each move, the actual supply, demand, and access forces, are covered in what moves the XMR price; this guide focuses on how those forces have played out over time.
The broad crypto cycles Monero rode
Crypto has moved in repeated cycles of boom and bust. The market went through major bubbles and crashes around 2017 to 2018 and again around 2021 to 2023 (source: Wikipedia, cryptocurrency). Monero took part in each of these, rising through the bull phases and falling through the bear phases, roughly in step with Bitcoin and the rest of the market.
This is the single most important thing to understand about Monero's history: for the most part, it has not moved on its own. When risk appetite floods into crypto, Monero tends to rise with everything else, and when the tide goes out, it falls too. This is the same pattern you see when comparing it with the largest coin, covered in Monero versus Bitcoin. Treating Monero as a member of the broader asset class, rather than a special case that trades on its own logic, explains the majority of its ups and downs. The Monero-specific factors matter, but they sit on top of this dominant market rhythm rather than replacing it.
Monero's own overlay: regulation and delistings
On top of the market cycle sits a driver specific to privacy coins: regulation. Over the years, exchanges have delisted Monero under regulatory pressure, including platforms in South Korea and Australia, and Binance in early 2024 (source: Wikipedia, Monero). These events can move Monero on its own, sometimes against the direction of the wider market.
The reason is access. A delisting does not change anything about Monero's technology, but it removes a place where people could buy and sell it, which thins out liquidity and makes the coin harder to reach. That can weigh on the price even during a calm or rising market, and it is the clearest example of Monero diverging from the crypto-wide trend. Because these events cluster around regulatory news rather than market sentiment, they are worth tracking separately, and the policy backdrop that produces them is covered in Monero and regulation. Access, more than technology, is the lever that has moved Monero on its own.
The supply backdrop through it all
One thing has stayed calm through every cycle: Monero's supply. It launched fairly in 2014 with no premine, and in 2022 it moved to a fixed tail emission, a small and steady block reward that continues indefinitely (source: Monero project, tail emission). New coins arrive at a predictable rate.
This matters for reading the history because it rules supply out as a source of drama. Bitcoin's cycles are often told through its halvings, the scheduled cuts to new supply, but Monero has no equivalent event. Its issuance just ticks along, so its cycles have been driven by demand and access rather than by supply shocks. When you look back at a Monero move, you can safely assume it was about how many people wanted the coin and how easily they could get it, not about a sudden change in how many new coins were being created. Throughout all of it, the software behind that supply schedule has been developed continuously in the open (source: Monero project source repository), so the network has stayed active and maintained across every cycle. The monetary policy itself is explained in Monero's tail emission.
Why Monero can swing harder than the market
Monero often moves more sharply than larger coins. Crypto is far more volatile than traditional assets like stocks, and Monero tends to amplify that. Its liquidity is thinner than a top-tier coin's, partly because of the delistings, so the same wave of buying or selling pushes its price further than it would for a deeper market.
That amplification cuts both ways, which is easy to forget in a rising market. In a strong bull phase, thin liquidity can make Monero's gains look dramatic, and in a downturn the same thinness can make its losses just as steep. None of this is unique to Monero among smaller or more specialized coins, but it is a real feature of how it has traded, and it is why its cycles can feel more extreme than Bitcoin's even when they are driven by the same underlying market tide. Sharp moves in both directions are the normal texture of Monero's history, not a sign that something has broken.
What the history does and does not tell you
Putting it together, Monero's price history is a broad crypto cycle with a regulatory overlay, on a calm, predictable supply. It rose in bull phases and fell in bear phases, with delisting-driven episodes of its own, and thinner liquidity made the swings larger. That is a useful way to make sense of past moves.
What it is not is a way to predict the next one. Patterns describe what has happened; they do not guarantee it will repeat, and a volatile asset in a young, fast-changing market can always break from its own history. Nothing in this guide is a forecast, a price target, or advice to buy, sell, or hold Monero. It is a map of how the price has behaved across cycles, offered so that the next move is easier to interpret rather than easier to bet on.
Frequently asked questions
Does Monero follow Bitcoin's price cycles?
For the most part, yes. Monero has generally risen and fallen with the broader crypto market and with Bitcoin, participating in the same boom-and-bust cycles that moved the whole asset class, such as those around 2017 to 2018 and 2021 to 2023. When risk appetite flows into crypto, Monero tends to rise with it, and when the market turns down, it usually falls too. The main exception is Monero-specific regulatory news, especially exchange delistings, which can push it on its own for a time. So Bitcoin's cycles explain most of Monero's history, with a privacy-coin overlay on top.
Has Monero been through bull and bear markets?
Yes. Since its launch in 2014, Monero has lived through the same major crypto bull and bear markets as other coins, including the run-up and crash around 2017 to 2018 and the cycle around 2021 to 2023. It has seen large gains during the market's optimistic phases and steep declines during its downturns. This is normal for a cryptocurrency, and it is why Monero is best understood as a volatile asset that moves in cycles rather than one that trends steadily in a single direction. Its history is a series of ups and downs, not a straight line.
How do delistings affect Monero's price history?
Delistings affect Monero mainly through access. When an exchange removes Monero under regulatory pressure, as several have, it takes away a place where people could buy and sell it, which reduces liquidity and makes the coin harder to reach. That can weigh on the price even when the broader market is flat or rising, which is why delisting episodes are the clearest cases of Monero moving against the wider trend. The technology is unaffected; what changes is how easily buyers and sellers can transact, and thinner access tends to translate into a weaker and more volatile market.
Is Monero more volatile than Bitcoin?
Monero has tended to swing more sharply than Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency in general is far more volatile than traditional assets like stocks, and Monero's thinner liquidity adds to that, so a given amount of buying or selling tends to move its price further than it would move a larger, more widely held coin. The delistings that reduced Monero's exchange access are part of why its markets are thinner. The result is that Monero's gains and losses can both look more extreme than Bitcoin's, even when the two are being carried by the same market cycle. That amplification works in both directions.
Does past performance predict Monero's future price?
No. Past performance does not predict future prices for Monero or any other asset, and crypto is an especially young and fast-changing market where old patterns can break. Understanding Monero's history, its cycles, its regulatory episodes, and its volatility, is useful for interpreting moves and knowing what to watch, but that is very different from forecasting where the price will go. Anyone offering a confident Monero price prediction is guessing. This guide deliberately gives no forecast and no target; it describes the past so the present is easier to understand, not so the future can be called.
What changed about Monero's supply over time?
The main change was the shift to tail emission. Monero launched in 2014 with a fair, no-premine distribution, and its block reward gradually declined over the following years. Rather than falling to zero, it settled in 2022 at a fixed tail emission, a small, steady reward per block that continues indefinitely. This keeps a predictable stream of new coins flowing to miners. In practice, though, supply has been a calm backdrop rather than a driver of Monero's price cycles, which have been shaped far more by demand and by how easily people can access the coin.
Does BloFin show Monero's price history?
BloFin offers an XMRUSDT perpetual futures contract, which tracks the live market price of Monero and lets you trade that price rather than holding the coin itself. To use it you would create a BloFin account, fund it with cryptocurrency, and open the XMRUSDT perpetual contract trading page. Perpetual futures are a higher-risk, margin-traded product that can lead to rapid losses, including liquidation. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, or trade Monero or any other asset, and this article contains no price forecast.
Researched and written by the BloFin Academy editorial team with AI-assisted drafting. Updated July 2026. Sources: the Wikipedia entries on cryptocurrency and on Monero, and the official Monero project documentation at getmonero.org (the tail-emission entry, what is Monero, and the source repository). All facts were independently verified against these primary sources current as of July 2026. This article contains no price figures or price forecasts.
This article is educational and general in nature, not financial advice. It describes how Monero's price has behaved across past market cycles and does not predict the price or recommend buying, selling, holding, or trading any asset. Monero is volatile, and its price can fall as well as rise. BloFin offers the XMRUSDT perpetual contract for trading; to get started, create a BloFin account, fund it with cryptocurrency, and open the XMRUSDT perpetual contract trading page. Perpetual futures are a higher-risk, margin-traded product that can lead to rapid losses, including liquidation.