- Monero’s on-chain activity stayed above pre-2022 levels despite major exchange delistings.
- Nearly 48% of new darknet markets in 2025 support XMR exclusively, per TRM Labs.
- 14–15% of Monero peers show non-standard behavior, affecting network-layer privacy assumptions.
Monero is not going away. Despite being removed from major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, the privacy coin keeps its ground.
A new report from blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs shows that XMR’s onchain activity stayed above pre-2022 levels through 2024 and into 2025. Usage did not contract. If anything, it tells a story of a coin with a stubborn, committed user base.
Monero Usage Stays Resilient Through Exchange Delistings
Losing access to mainstream exchange infrastructure would hurt most assets. For Monero, the impact has been limited.
TRM Labs noted that 73 exchanges delisted XMR in 2025 alone. Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Huobi, and Bitstamp have all removed or restricted it. Yet transaction volumes in 2024 and 2025 remained significantly higher than in the early 2020–2021 period.
According to TRM Labs, this points to a specific kind of demand. The users still on Monero are not casual retail traders chasing price swings. They are people who want privacy and accept the friction that comes with it, fewer on-ramps, thinner liquidity, and higher volatility.
Monero’s realized volatility over the past 30 days was roughly two and a half times greater than Bitcoin and ETH, TRM Labs noted.
Despite exchange delistings and enforcement pressure, XMR activity on Monero remains above pre-2022 levels.
Key findings from our latest research:
🔺 48% of new darknet markets in 2025 are XMR-only
🔺 Most ransomware payments still occur in BTC — liquidity matters
🔺 14–15% of… pic.twitter.com/BYPJMrLaJN— TRM Labs (@trmlabs) February 16, 2026
Ransomware Groups Prefer XMR, But Still Settle in Bitcoin
Ransomware actors want Monero. That much is clear. TRM Labs confirmed that ransomware groups continue to express a preference for XMR payments, and some even offer discounts to receive it. But real-world behavior tells a different story.
The overwhelming majority of actual ransom settlements still happen in Bitcoin. Why? Liquidity. Bitcoin is easier to acquire, easier to move, and easier to convert at scale. Even though it is far more traceable, it wins on practicality.
TRM Labs highlighted this as a core tension: privacy preference versus real-world usability. In illicit finance, usability often wins.
Nearly Half of New Darknet Markets in 2025 Are XMR-Only
Darknet market operators are paying attention. TRM Labs found that 48% of newly launched darknet markets in 2025 support only Monero. That is a sharp increase compared to prior years. The shift is especially visible in Western-facing markets.
Operators there appear to be responding directly to improved tracing capabilities on Bitcoin and stablecoins.
Stablecoins, TRM Labs noted, are increasingly subject to issuer controls and compliance measures. Bitcoin’s on-chain activity is more traceable than ever.
Against that backdrop, Monero fills a clear gap. Its growing share of XMR-only darknet market adoption signals that demand for genuine financial privacy has not faded.
TRM Labs Flags Non-Standard Behavior in Monero’s P2P Network
Monero’s cryptography remains intact. TRM Labs was direct on that point. But the firm’s researchers flagged something worth watching at the network layer.
In the course of traffic analysis, TRM Labs observed unexpected behavior in Monero’s peer-to-peer network that did not align with standard protocol expectations.
Working with external academic researchers, TRM Labs found that 14 to 15% of Monero network peers show non-standard behavior. These deviations involve relay behavior, message timing, and infrastructure concentration.
The findings, available as a pre-print on arXiv, suggest that real-world network dynamics can influence privacy assumptions, even when the on-chain cryptography holds firm.
TRM Labs concluded that while Monero’s protocol-level privacy is strong, how the network is operated day to day matters too.
