New research from blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs reveals that Monero's on-chain activity has remained resilient despite a wave of delistings from major cryptocurrency exchanges. Transaction usage in 2024 and 2025 stayed above pre-2022 levels, indicating sustained demand for the privacy-focused cryptocurrency.
The regulatory pressure intensified significantly in 2024 and 2025. Major exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Huobi, and Bitstamp removed or restricted Monero (XMR) over compliance and traceability concerns. This trend culminated in 2025 with 73 exchanges delisting XMR. Furthermore, Dubai's financial regulator banned privacy coins like Monero and Zcash (ZEC) on licensed platforms within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
Despite this crackdown on regulated avenues, adoption in certain sectors is growing. TRM Labs found that 48% of newly launched darknet markets in 2025 supported only Monero, a "notable increase compared to earlier years." This shift is attributed to improved tracing capabilities for Bitcoin and increased compliance controls on stablecoins, making Monero's privacy features more attractive to these operators.
In the ransomware space, a preference for Monero exists but practicality prevails. While ransomware operators often request XMR and sometimes offer discounts for it, the vast majority of actual ransom payments are still settled in Bitcoin due to its superior liquidity and ease of conversion at scale.
The report also highlighted potential network-layer privacy concerns. TRM Labs, in collaboration with external academic researchers, observed that 14% to 15% of Monero network peers exhibit non-standard behavior. This involves unusual timing patterns and connections clustered on certain servers, suggesting some operators may run many connected "spy nodes" that could theoretically observe transaction propagation and gain clues about origins, even though Monero's on-chain cryptography remains unbroken.
In response to these network concerns, the Monero development team released the Fluorine Fermi (v0.18.4.3) software update in October 2025. This upgrade introduced an improved peer-selection system designed to steer wallets away from suspicious parts of the network and toward safer nodes, specifically targeting the "spy node" issue.
