- Monero’s on-chain activity remained above pre-2022 levels despite major delistings from the exchange.
- According to TRM Labs, nearly 48% of new darknet markets will support XMR exclusively by 2025.
- 14 to 15% of Monero peers exhibit anomalous behavior, which impacts privacy assumptions at the network layer.
Monero isn’t going away. Despite being delisted from major exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase, the privacy coin retains its position.
A new report from the blockchain analytics company TRM laboratories shows that XMR oncha activity remained above pre-2022 levels through 2024 and into 2025. Usage did not decrease. If anything, it tells the story of a coin with a stubborn, dedicated user base.
Monero usage remains resilient thanks to exchange delistings
Losing access to regular exchange infrastructure would harm most assets. The impact has been limited for Monero.
TRM Labs noted that 73 exchanges delisted XMR in 2025 alone. BinanceCoinbase, Kraken, OKX, Huobi and Bitstamp have all removed or restricted it. Still, transaction volumes in 2024 and 2025 remained significantly higher than in the early 2020-2021 period.
According to TRM Labs, this points to a specific type of demand. The users still using Monero are not regular retailers chasing price fluctuations. They are people who want privacy and accept the friction that comes with it, fewer on-ramps, less liquidity and higher volatility.
Monero’s realized volatility over the past 30 days was about two and a half times greater than that of Bitcoin and ETH, TRM Labs noted.
Despite delistings and enforcement pressure, XMR activity on Monero remains above pre-2022 levels.
Key findings from our latest research:
🔺 48% of new darknet markets by 2025 will be XMR only
🔺 Most ransomware payments are still in BTC – liquidity matters
🔺 14–15% of… pic.twitter.com/BYPJMrLaJN— TRM Labs (@trmlabs) February 16, 2026
Ransomware groups prefer XMR, but still settle for Bitcoin
Ransomware actors want Monero. That much is clear. TRM Labs confirmed that ransomware groups continue to express a preference for XMR payments, with some even offering discounts to receive them. But real-world behavior tells a different story.
The vast majority of actual ransom schemes still take place in Bitcoin. Why? Liquidity. Bitcoin is easier to acquire, easier to move, and easier to convert at scale. Although it is much more traceable, it wins in terms of practicality.
TRM Labs highlighted this as a core tension: privacy preference versus real-world usability. With illegal financing, practicality often wins.
Nearly half of new Darknet markets by 2025 will be XMR only
Darknet market operators are paying attention. TRM Labs found that 48% of newly launched darknet markets will only support Monero by 2025. That is a significant increase compared to previous years. The shift is especially visible in Western-oriented markets.
Operators there appear to be responding immediately to improved tracking capabilities on Bitcoin and stablecoins.
Stablecoins, TRM Labs noted, are increasingly subject to issuer controls and compliance measures. Bitcoin’s on-chain activity is more traceable than ever.
Against that backdrop, Monero fills a clear gap. The growing share of adoption of XMR-only darknet markets indicates that the demand for true financial privacy has not gone away.
TRM Labs identifies non-standard behavior in Monero’s P2P network
Monero’s cryptography remains intact. TRM Labs was direct on that point. But the company’s researchers have noticed something worth looking at at the network layer.
During traffic analysis, TRM Labs observed unexpected behavior in Monero’s peer-to-peer network that did not match standard protocol expectations.
Working with external academic researchers, TRM Labs found that 14 to 15% of Monero Network colleagues exhibit deviant behavior. These deviations relate to the relay behavior, the timing of messages and the concentration of the infrastructure.
The findings, available as a pre-print on arXiv, suggest that network dynamics in the real world can influence privacy assumptions even if on-chain cryptography holds up.
TRM Labs concluded that while Monero’s protocol-level privacy is strong, the way the network is managed on a day-to-day basis also matters.
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