Monero (XMR) Surge Likely Linked to Hack, Says ZachXBT
Monero (XMR) saw a dramatic price spike of nearly 40% early Monday, with on-chain researcher ZachXBT attributing the surge to a likely hack.
ZachXBT traced the unusual activity to a suspicious transaction where 3,520 bitcoin (BTC), valued at approximately $330.7 million, was withdrawn from an address and subsequently swapped for XMR.
Market data confirmed a significant increase in XMR volatility, driven by an unusually high volume of buy orders on the XMR-BTC trading pair.
Initially, the cause of the price jump was unclear as typical metrics, such as active wallets and network activity, showed no noticeable increase. However, the limited liquidity of Monero on exchanges played a key role in amplifying the price move. In recent months, major platforms have delisted XMR as part of efforts to curb illegal activities on the dark web, reducing the token’s available market depth. As a result, even modest-sized buy orders can have an outsized impact on the price.
At the time of writing, XMR is trading above $300, according to CoinDesk market data.
