Monero (XMR) price surged nearly 10% on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, reaching an intraday high of $344. The rally was driven by a combination of a confirmed bullish technical breakout and a new research report from TRM Labs highlighting the privacy coin's resilient adoption in shadow markets despite widespread exchange delistings.
Technically, Monero price confirmed a breakout from a falling wedge pattern on the daily chart, a classic bullish reversal signal. This breakout was supported by a bullish MACD crossover and an RSI trending near oversold levels. Analysts now eye the 200-day EMA at $381 as the next key resistance, with a break above potentially opening the path to test the $420 level.
Fundamentally, the price movement followed a report from blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs. The research found that Monero's on-chain transaction activity remained stable and above pre-2022 levels throughout 2024-2025, even after delistings from major exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and Huobi. The report noted that 73 exchanges delisted XMR in 2025 alone, concentrating liquidity on offshore platforms.
A key finding was the growing dominance of Monero in darknet markets, with 48% of newly launched darknet marketplaces in 2025 being XMR-only. This reflects a direct response to enhanced tracing capabilities on Bitcoin and stablecoins. The report also noted that while Monero's cryptography remains strong, network-layer analysis revealed that 14-15% of reachable peers show non-standard behavior, which can influence real-world privacy assumptions.
Additional catalysts cited for Monero's strength include capital rotation from other privacy tokens like Zcash (ZEC) and Dash (DASH), as well as renewed demand for privacy solutions amid global regulatory tightening and new reporting standards requiring user identity disclosure.
