Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero has been at the forefront of the rally as the crypto market regains lost ground. Monero (XMR) spiked by as much as 14% in a surprising surge on Monday to set a new five-month high of $267.
As of this writing, Monero is still up by 10% and trading at $260. Monero’s unexpected rally follows a coordinated effort in which XMR holders withdrew their holdings from exchange wallets, and has been dubbed the “Monerun.”
The 24 hour price chart for Monero (XMR). Source: Tradingview
Monerun: The Bank Run
The Monerun was first shared by Reddit user “bawdyanarchist,” who opined that the Monero community needed to test the XMR reserves on exchanges. The ambitious bawdyanarchist wrote on the coin’s dedicated subreddit:
“April 18th. We’re withdrawing XMR from exchanges. Any exchange that hasn’t disabled withdraws (which many of them have already), we’re pulling our funds,”
The idea was quickly adopted by many members of the Monero community, as trading volumes across exchanges rose by more than 100% on Monday. $430 million worth of XMR has since been traded over the last 24 hours.
On the Flipside
- At the end of the Monerun, the community reached a loose consensus that; “Monero’s obfuscated ledger has enabled a number of exchanges to misrepresent their reserves and sell XMR that they don’t actually have. The exchange just sold a promise, not a real asset.”
Why You Should Care
If the Monerun hypothesis is true, the mass withdrawal of XMR would likely force exchanges to buy XMR in order to fund the large-scale withdrawals.