Did Exchange Bans Reduce Monero Activity?
Monero’s on-chain activity has remained steady even after several major cryptocurrency exchanges removed or restricted the privacy-focused token, according to new research from TRM Labs.
Transaction data for 2024 and 2025 shows usage stayed above levels recorded before 2022, suggesting demand did not weaken despite reduced access on centralized trading venues. The findings challenge the assumption that delistings would materially curb network activity.
In 2024, large exchanges including Binance and Kraken moved to delist or phase out Monero over compliance and traceability concerns. Regulatory pressure intensified this year when Dubai’s financial regulator banned privacy coins such as Monero and Zcash on licensed platforms operating within the Dubai International Financial Centre.
Even so, monthly transaction counts have remained resilient, indicating that users continue to transact outside major centralized exchanges.
Investor Takeaway
What Role Does Monero Play in Illicit Payments?
Despite Monero’s reputation as a privacy tool, TRM Labs found that Bitcoin remains the primary currency used for real-world ransom payments. While ransomware operators often request Monero and sometimes offer discounts for payments made in it, victims still tend to settle in Bitcoin.
The dynamic appears different on darknet marketplaces. Researchers reported that 48% of newly launched darknet markets in 2025 supported only Monero, describing this as “a notable increase compared to earlier years.” That shift suggests growing preference for privacy-centric payment rails in certain underground ecosystems.
The divergence between ransomware settlements and darknet market infrastructure highlights how different segments of illicit activity weigh liquidity against anonymity. Bitcoin’s deep liquidity and broader acceptance continue to anchor it in ransom flows, while newer darknet venues increasingly standardize on Monero.
Can Network Behavior Undermine Monero’s Privacy?
Monero’s cryptography conceals sender, recipient, and transaction amounts on-chain. However, TRM Labs examined how transactions propagate across the internet, focusing on peer-to-peer network behavior rather than blockchain data itself.
The research found that 14% to 15% of Monero nodes displayed unusual timing patterns and connections clustered around specific servers. This does not indicate that Monero’s encryption has been broken. Instead, it suggests that some operators may be running multiple connected nodes capable of observing how transactions spread through the network.
In peer-to-peer systems, nodes that receive a transaction earlier than others can sometimes infer information about its origin. “Although Monero’s on-chain cryptography remains unchanged, network behavior can impact theoretical anonymity properties if observers can see message propagation,” the report said.
Investor Takeaway
How Is Monero Addressing ‘Spy Node’ Risks?
In October 2025, Monero released a software update known as Fluorine Fermi (v0.18.4.3) designed to strengthen network-level privacy protections. The update introduced a revised peer-selection mechanism that directs wallets away from suspicious clusters and toward more diverse nodes.
Within the Monero community, so-called “spy nodes” refer to nodes or coordinated groups that attempt to correlate transactions with users’ IP addresses by observing propagation patterns. These nodes do not defeat the protocol’s cryptographic safeguards but may gather metadata about how transactions move across the network.
Debate around this issue intensified after a leaked 2024 video suggested investigators could monitor activity through nodes they controlled. While that episode did not expose a flaw in Monero’s encryption, it renewed discussion about how network topology can affect privacy assumptions.
The latest findings indicate that Monero’s usage base remains intact despite exchange delistings and regulatory pressure. At the same time, scrutiny has broadened beyond blockchain analysis to include network-layer observation, adding another dimension to how privacy coins are evaluated in practice.
