The price of the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero hit a two-year high on Tuesday. It has been on the rise since the crypto market crashed in March.
Monero price rose to $157.64 early Tuesday, its highest since June 2018, according to data compiled by CoinDesk 20.
As of this writing, Monero is trading at $152.09, up almost 300% on a year-to-date basis.
Monero has been on the rise for most of 2020 despite regulatory concerns.
Launched in April 2014, Monero was designed to be a private, secure, and untraceable cryptocurrency.
The protocols behind cryptocurrencies allow users to obfuscate their identity and hide amounts transferred from third parties except to those they specify.
Analysts said the increased demand for privacy-focused tokens could be due to companies' growing concerns that they would need Monero to pay ransoms to hackers. .
“While some companies may be ramping up their Bitcoin purchases to improve their ability to achieve their portfolio diversification ambitions, others are companies are similarly stepping up efforts to source digital assets such as Monero,” said Director Denis Vinokurov. London-based Prime Brokerage Bequant told CoinDesk in his email:
Vinokourov said that while no Monero-based ransoms were demanded during the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Department hacks or Monday's Google outage, these events have made more companies concerned about similar hacks. .
Recent hacks “show that bad actors are getting more and more sophisticated,” he said.
Globally, crypto exchanges are delisting many privacy coins, including Monero, to maintain compliance with Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering (AML/KYC) requirements.
However, Justin Ehrenhofer, a compliance analyst at crypto market maker DV Chain, told CoinDesk that Monero traders are also starting to think that Monero's continued growth will lead to concerns about how to relist the privacy-focused coin. He said there is a possibility that he is becoming more “optimistic” that talks will be resumed.
Blockchain analytics company CipherTrace recently filed two patents for technology it claims will help regulators track transactions made on Monero.
