Image from Reddit, chart from TradingView.com
Monero (XMR), a popular privacy coin, has been on an upward trend since the beginning of 2022. With the cryptocurrency market trending sideways, the cryptocurrency seems to be moving on its own.
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XMR bulls have been showing more strength lately: at the time of writing, XMR is trading at $285, having gained 6% in 24 hours, and 34% and 50% in the past two weeks and 30 days, respectively.
As announced in a post by one of Monero's maintainers, the network is scheduled to be upgraded on July 16.NumberIn January 2022, once the number of blocks reaches 2.6 million, the “Fermi Fluorine” update will introduce new features to the network.
As stated by the developers, Monero will increase its ring size from 11 to 16. Ring size is a term that refers to the total number of signers on an XMR transaction. As part of the network’s unique model, the update will provide users with more basic privacy.
Additionally, the network will implement an upgraded version of the Bulletproofs algorithm that will reduce transaction sizes by around 7%. The change should make “all transactions lighter and faster” and improve the network’s scalability.
Regarding the latter, the post states that the network will reduce wallet sync times by around 30-40% and make changes to Monero's fee model, which users can expect to improve the “security and resilience” of the network.
The update will be rolled out via a hard fork, requiring users and node operators to update their software. The maintainers have made the following request to users:
The new release will be announced prior to the network upgrade (around June 16th) and you will simply need to use the updated software until the network upgrade occurs (July 16th) – for the end user it will just look like a simple software update.
#Monero Network upgrade will be carried out on July 16, 2022: https://t.co/9NKlGtqXAn
All users need to do is keep their favorite wallets up to date, update their nodes once v0.18 is released (~June 16th), and enjoy even better digital cash after that 😎
— Monero (XMR) (@monero) April 20, 2022
Could Monero pose a risk to the cryptocurrency market?
Monero’s recent price fluctuations could be due to an upcoming network update. As mentioned above, the update is substantial and will provide users with some interesting new features.
According to data from Material Indicators (MI), buying pressure from retail investors increased in April. At the same time, investors with sell orders of over $10,000 sold during the rally. Unless a larger investor base steps in, XMR is at risk of falling in the short term.
Related Article | Monero (XMR) price falls as Canada includes cryptocurrencies in emergency legislation
Additional data provided by Jarvis Labs points to a potential danger to the cryptocurrency market as a whole. According to the firm's “Dino Index” (comprised of Ethereum Classic, Zcash, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, etc.), which tracks the performance of these assets and shows an inverse correlation with the cryptocurrency market, some troubles may be on the way. Jarvis Labs stated on their Telegram channel:
Most of the time when these dinosaur coins are rising and BTC is rising, it is clear that it is better to consider taking profits or hedging your risks and look for market tops.
