TRM Labs analysts have recorded a shift in trends in the dark web: illegal marketplaces are widely transitioning to the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero.
According to the report, almost half of the shadow platforms launched in 2025 operated exclusively with this token.
Experts linked the trend to law enforcement's successes in tracking bitcoin and stablecoins. Under pressure from regulators, criminals are forced to seek assets that are harder to tie to real identities.
Impact on price and liquidity
Interest in Monero is fueled by major incidents. In January, unknown individuals stole over $200 million from a crypto wallet and began converting the funds into $XMR . According to Chainalysis, buyer pressure led to a 60% surge in the coin's price in just four days, resulting in a new historical maximum.
Although the price corrected after the peak, Monero surged by 51% over the year, outpacing Bitcoin and Ethereum in dynamics.
The increase occurred despite mass delistings of the asset on centralized platforms. After Binance and other major exchanges removed trading pairs with XMR, trading volumes shifted to decentralized platforms with less strict listing rules.
Technical Changes
Currently, Monero uses ring signatures, mixing the real transaction with 15 false inputs. This complicates but does not make blockchain analysis impossible.
Justin Ehrenhofer from NAXO commented to Bloomberg that law enforcement may use metadata from exchange withdrawals to deanonymize users.
However, developers are preparing a massive update—the implementation of Full-Chain Membership Proofs Development technology. This will increase the number of possible senders from 16 to millions. Head of CryptoForensic Investigators Paul Siebenik believes that the upgrade will make attempts to identify the real sender meaningless.
Ideology versus the law
Supporters of the coin see the interest from criminals as confirmation of the technology's effectiveness. XmrBazaar marketplace founder Douglas Tuman stated that wrongdoers choose XMR because it operates as 'real untraceable digital cash.'
Monero developer Luke Parker emphasized that the project's goal is to protect the right to privacy without the oversight of banks and governments.
In TRM Labs, they acknowledge the complexity of the situation. According to the head of the policy department, Ari Redbord, the main challenge for the industry is to ensure privacy for law-abiding users while not arming criminals.
