Monero climbs to $644, leaving it about 24 percent short of January's record

Monero traded between $643.65 and $648.74 on the morning of October 22, 2026. Over 24 hours the privacy coin gained 9.9 to 11.9 percent depending on the data provider, making it the strongest mover among the 25 largest crypto assets. One further point is documented: despite that jump the price still sits 18.9 percent below the all-time high of $797.14 that Monero reached on January 14, 2026. Our assessment follows further down. The distance to that high says more about the situation than the daily percentages, and for investors in Europe a different question decides the actual gain anyway: where the trade can still be executed.

The Monero price jump in numbers: 9.9 to 11.9 percent in a day

The two market data providers differ slightly. CoinGecko put the price at $646.97 on Thursday morning, with a gain of 11.86 percent over 24 hours. Coinpaprika reported $643.65 and 9.94 percent. Differences like these arise because each provider weights its own basket of trading venues, and the reference point 24 hours earlier is not the same. We therefore give the range rather than smoothing it.

Over seven days the gain stands at 18.3 to 18.4 percent. The market value of all circulating XMR comes to roughly $12.1 billion, which puts Monero 13th among the largest crypto assets.

For context: Bitcoin stood at $82,430 over the same window, 0.4 to 0.8 percent lower than the previous day, and Ethereum at $2,431, down 0.5 to 0.9 percent. The broad market is barely moving. Whatever is driving Monero does not come from the general direction of the market.

Monero all-time high: $797.14 from January 14, 2026 as the yardstick

A daily gain of ten percent sounds like a lot. It only becomes meaningful when you hold it against the coin's own history. Monero set its current all-time high on the evening of January 14, 2026 at $797.14. From today's level, 23.8 percent is missing to that mark. Put differently, the price would have to rise roughly twice as far again as it did on Wednesday to match the high.

That calculation is useful because it separates two readings that often get mixed up in price reports. One reading sees a breakout and extrapolates it. The other sees a recovery inside a range whose upper boundary has been known since January. Which of the two applies depends on whether the price can clear the zone around $700, where the January rally came to an end.

The next concrete level to the upside therefore remains the January high at $797.14. On the downside lies the starting point of the current week: seven days ago XMR stood about 18.4 percent lower, at roughly $544. The move is currently playing out between those two values.

Zcash stalls while Monero climbs: the privacy coins are diverging

On October 18 we described the price gap between the two large privacy coins here. At that point Monero added 8.1 percent to $592, while Zcash gave up 3.7 percent. Since then the picture has not reversed; it has widened. Monero trades roughly $52 higher than four days ago. Zcash costs $1,268.82 and has barely moved over 24 hours (down 0.03 percent), though it is also up 14.8 percent over seven days.

Both coins are rising over the week, just at different moments. That argues against the narrative that a single piece of news is moving the whole privacy sector. It argues for rotation within the sector, with capital moving back and forth between its two largest names.

Turnover of 3.1 percent: how thinly this advance is supported

One figure that rarely appears in price reports helps here: the ratio of trading volume to market value, also called turnover. It shows what share of the total market value actually changes hands in a day. The smaller that share, the less capital it takes to move the price, in either direction.

cryptoticker.io compiled this analysis itself on October 22, 2026. It is based on market data from two public market data providers for four crypto assets, collected on Thursday morning. Monero turned over $370.4 million in 24 hours against a market value of $12.11 billion. That works out to a turnover of 3.06 percent. Zcash saw $1.22 billion in volume over the same period against a market value of $20.72 billion, or 5.90 percent.

Zcash is therefore traded almost twice as intensively as Monero at present, yet barely moves day on day. Monero is moving sharply, and on comparatively thin trading. For holders that is the information that matters on this day: a market that rises ten percent on three percent turnover can turn the other way just as quickly on similarly little volume. That is not a forecast but a property of thin markets.

Article 79 of the EU anti-money laundering regulation: what applies to XMR from July 2027

The EU anti-money laundering regulation, known in the trade as the AMLR, is Regulation (EU) 2024/1624. Its Article 79 prohibits credit institutions, financial institutions and crypto-asset service providers from maintaining anonymous accounts. That expressly covers crypto-asset accounts as well as accounts that allow the anonymisation of the holder or the enhanced obfuscation of transactions. On the prevailing reading this captures coins with built-in anonymisation, meaning Monero and Zcash. The date of application is set out in Article 90 of the regulation, which names July 10, 2027. Some German accounts cite July 1, 2027 instead. You can read the official text in the Official Journal of the EU yourself.

Two things about this matter and are regularly confused. First, the provision is addressed to supervised firms, not to you as an investor. It contains no ban on holding XMR. Second, the rule takes effect long before its date of application, because supervised houses clean up their offerings early. That is precisely why trading access is narrowing today rather than only in 2027.

Where XMR can still be traded by investors in Europe

The narrowing is not a forecast, it is already measurable. On October 6, 2026 cryptoticker.io found that six large trading venues no longer list XMR. Anyone looking to buy or sell today runs into a gap in the offering more often than two years ago, above all at providers with a European licence.

In practical terms, looking at the price alone is not enough. Before you build or reduce a position in XMR, settle the question of which supervised provider the trade should run through, and whether that provider will still offer the pair tomorrow. An overview of venues with a European licence can be found in our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges. An offering that exists today is no commitment for the next quarter; the removal of a trading pair is usually announced a few weeks in advance.

A second point concerns withdrawals. When a venue drops a pair, there is usually a window in which you can still move or sell your holdings. Once that window closes, some houses convert the holdings into another currency at a set rate. That rate is rarely the one you would have chosen.

No protocol event: what is behind version 0.18.5.4 of October 16

Strong price moves invite the assumption that something happened on the network. For this advance that explanation does not hold. According to the project site the current release of the Monero software is version 0.18.5.4, nicknamed Fluorine Fermi, published on October 16, 2026. It is a maintenance release within the running series, not a hard fork and not a protocol change that introduces new properties.

A maintenance release fixes bugs and improves how the software runs. A release of that kind changes neither the money supply nor the way transactions are obscured. The price rise of recent days therefore coincides with a publication whose content creates no new fact for valuing the coin. If you are looking for a reason for the move, it is more likely to sit in the trading than in the code.

Self-custody of XMR: which wallets support Monero at all

Self-custody means holding crypto assets in a wallet whose keys only you control. With Monero the point is practical rather than ideological: when a trading venue drops the pair, the custody held there disappears with it. Holdings in your own wallet are unaffected.

Note that Monero uses its own cryptography and is therefore not supported by every hardware wallet. Support depends on the device and on the companion software you use with it. Before buying a device, check that XMR appears in the list of supported crypto assets, and that your manufacturer's wallet software can actually create Monero accounts. Our hardware wallet comparison lists the supported crypto assets per device.

The recovery phrase is part of securing all this. With Monero that phrase consists of 25 words and is the only route back to your holdings if the device is lost. Storing it digitally undoes the protection the hardware wallet provides.

Capital gains holding period: one year decides the tax on the gain

An 18 percent gain in a week immediately raises the tax question in Germany. Profits from selling crypto assets count as private disposals under Section 23 of the Income Tax Act. The holding period is what decides: if more than a year lies between purchase and sale, the gain is tax free. Inside that period it is taxable, and at your personal income tax rate rather than the flat withholding tax.

There is also an exemption limit for the total of all private disposals in a year. If it is exceeded, the entire gain becomes taxable, not just the part above the limit. That is what distinguishes an exemption limit from an allowance.

For the current move that means two things. If you have held XMR for more than a year, a sale carries nothing to watch for tax purposes. If you sell inside the period, have the acquisition data for every single purchase to hand, because the period runs separately for each one. This account is no substitute for tax advice; for larger amounts the case belongs with a tax adviser.

Leverage and liquidation: why a thin market turns faster

On the mechanism: a liquidation is the forced closing of a leveraged position by the trading venue once the collateral posted is no longer sufficient. Every liquidation creates an order in the direction of the move. When a price rises sharply, positions betting on falling prices are closed, and those closures buy the price further up.

The mechanism works in both directions, and it works more violently the less volume sits in the market. The turnover of 3.06 percent calculated above places Monero exactly there. If you work with leverage, know the distance between your entry and your liquidation price before the position is open, not afterwards. Which venues demand which leverage and which fees varies considerably.

Our assessment: the gap to the all-time high is not a price target

From the newsroom's point of view this advance carries a visible weakness. Three points are documented. First, the broad market is not moving with it, with Bitcoin and Ethereum in the red. Second, the move falls on a turnover of 3.06 percent, which is comparatively thin trading. Third, there is no protocol event that would justify a revaluation; the most recent release of October 16 is a maintenance version.

As a result, we read the 23.8 percent to the January high as a measure of distance and not as a target. Nothing about that rules out the price covering the ground; Monero showed in January how fast that can happen. What does argue against it is that no new fact has emerged so far to justify a lasting higher valuation. We are assessing the situation and issuing no recommendation to buy or sell. A total loss is possible at any time with crypto assets.

Monero at $644: a price gain is worth little without EU trading access

The price is the smaller half of the story this Wednesday. The larger half is whether you can still move your position where you hold it. Three steps put that in order:

1. Settle your trading access. Check whether your provider still lists the XMR pair and whether a removal has been announced. Venues with a European licence are listed in our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges.
2. Decide on custody. Settle whether your holdings should sit on a trading venue or in your own wallet. Which devices support Monero is shown by the hardware wallet comparison.
3. Secure your acquisition data. Record the date and price of every purchase so the one-year period under Section 23 stays provable. Tools for that can be found under crypto tax software.

(As of October 22, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)