Monero has become one of the most closely watched privacy coins this week after rallying to an eight-month high above $650 on October 22, before retreating toward the $605–$613 area. The initial surge followed the release of GUI v0.18.5.4 'Fluorine Fermi', a minor upgrade that reopens testnet and stagenet wallets and includes bug fixes. Some market participants, including X users Sweep and Alaoui Capital, have projected a push toward a new all-time high of $1,000, though the price pulled back instead. Dr Profit warned that Monero's open interest had hit a historic high—a claim Santiment rejected—and noted that a previous similar jump preceded a 66% crash in 20 days.
Technical analysts are watching $429.99 as the key support level for XMR's uptrend from its June low. More Crypto Online said the advance can continue as long as that level holds, using Elliott Wave analysis on the four-hour chart to describe a bull market move from roughly $280 toward $600. Fibonacci retracement levels are marked at $470.73, $429.99, and $382.50, with a deeper support around $282.47. Monero's market capitalization stands at $11.53 billion, with a 24-hour trading volume of about $174.6 million. The latest session had XMR recovering from an intraday low near $588 to reach $613.03.
Zcash also posted a notable surge, reaching a nine-day peak above $1,360 on October 21. The rally was linked to reports that the Zcash team plans to triple block production speed, with developers targeting November 5 for the NU7 upgrade. It also coincided with two major investors opening approximately $37 million in long positions on ZEC with 10x leverage. The advance was short-lived, however, and ZEC now trades near $1,200, down about 2% on a weekly basis. Crypto With Gopal pointed to a potential head-and-shoulders pattern with support around $1,050, saying bulls need to defend that level and reclaim $1,300 or more to weaken the bearish setup.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, was rejected near $85,000 on October 22 and now hovers around $81,500. Rising geopolitical tensions and weak broader financial markets contributed to the pullback. Despite this, whale activity remains notable: 40 newly created wallets have withdrawn over $770 million worth of BTC since October 1, and holders with 10 to 10,000 BTC accumulated almost 90,000 coins in one month. That concentration of demand could reduce available supply and support higher prices if demand remains steady.
