The Monero community is celebrating the 11th birthday of the iconic cryptocurrency that has left an indelible mark on the sector.
The privacy-focused altcoin, which is based on the CryptoNote protocol, was launched back in 2014.
Monero is a fork of Bytecoin, the OG cryptocurrency that appeared back in 2012. It ended up being created due to some disagreements with the direction of the initial project.
The successful fork added notable innovative features such as ring signatures and stealth addresses that make it possible to anonymize transactions. It gained a lot of traction when privacy coins became all the rage during the 2017 bull market, emerging as the darling of cyberpunk and libertarians.
According to CoinGecko data, Monero remains the 33rd biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The cryptocurrency is currently valued at $4 billion. While its market cap is respectable, it pales in comparison to some of the other top altcoins.
The Monero community remains active, but it has lost a lot of ground due to the growing marginalization of privacy coins. Due to regulatory pressure, major exchanges, including Coinbase and Kraken, moved to delist Monero in various jurisdictions. Some countries, such as South Korea, have imposed a blanket ban on privacy coins.
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The token is down nearly 60% from its all-time peak of $542, which was achieved in January 2018. Back then, XMR was in 13th place by market capitalization.
Source: https://u.today/monero-turns-11-rise-and-fall-of-flagship-privacy-coin