Monero Turns 11: Rise and Fall of Flagship Privacy Coin

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Ah, the 11th anniversary of Monero—an odd little ghost in the vast, noisy bazaar of cryptocurrencies. A coin born not of gentle agreement, but of fiery dispute, breaking away from Bytecoin’s shadowy cradle back in 2014. What a tempestuous debut for a child of CryptoNote! 🎭

They say it was forged by rebels, the privacy zealots who craved freedom from prying eyes. Ring signatures and stealth addresses—like cloaks for your coins—were whispered into existence here, the secret spellbook of a digital age desperado. A coin so private that even its closest kin could only guess its moves. Quite the trick, isn’t it?

🎉 “We celebrate our 11th birthday today! May your life be a fortress of privacy and may Monero live to guard your secrets for many more years.”
— Monero (XMR) (@monero) April 18, 2025

The year 2017 was Monero’s wild prom night—when privacy coins strutted down the bull market catwalk like cyberpunks and libertarians had thrown the party of the century. But reality, that relentless janitor, swept in with regulations and bans, kicking Monero off the grand stages of Coinbase and Kraken. South Korea even tossed it out like a troublesome guest, declaring a no-privacy coin zone. 🚷

Now, Monero still clings to its 33rd place throne, a humble $4 billion in the grand realm of crypto riches—respectable enough, yet no beacon among giants. Its glory days, perched high at $542 in early 2018, now seem like a distant song hummed by ghosts in the blockchain. The price has dropped almost 60%, and XMR is no longer the prom queen but rather a seasoned survivor in a cruel digital jungle. 🦝

And yet, the faithful chatter on, ever hopeful, ever cunning. Because beneath the grime and the fall, Monero’s spirit of privacy and rebellion refuses to quietly fade into the night.

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2025-04-18 22:15