Privacy tokens rally as XMR breaks all-time high

Monero XMR$460.72 surged to a fresh all-time high, trading at $579 by midday Hong Kong time, leading a sharp rally across privacy-focused tokens as traders rotated into higher beta corners of the market.

XMR’s breakout capped a steady multi-month climb that accelerated over the past 24 hours, with the token rising more than 20% on the day and decisively outperforming both bitcoin and ether. Zcash and other privacy adjacent assets like Canton also advanced, extending gains that have been building since late December as liquidity conditions improved and traders reentered risk.

Solana's SOL SOL$121.71 token rose about 5% over the past 24 hours, keeping pace with the broader altcoin bid but failing to break decisively higher as price action remained capped near key resistance levels despite improving sentiment.

Analysts at 10x Research wrote in a note that Monero has benefited from a renewed focus on privacy and anticipation around upcoming protocol upgrades, which have reignited demand despite persistent regulatory risks hanging over the sector. The firm added that Solana continues to attract institutional attention through filings and planned network upgrades, although its price action remains capped near key technical levels, reinforcing the divergence between narrative strength and near-term market conviction.

All of this market movement contrasts with the political noise circulating around U.S. monetary policy.

Traders on prediction markets continue to assign low odds to Jerome Powell being forced out as Federal Reserve chair ahead of the scheduled end of his term in May, despite weekend headlines around Justice Department subpoenas and Powell’s public warnings about political pressure.

The pricing suggests markets are not treating the episode as a genuine threat to Fed leadership or near-term monetary policy, but rather as part of an ongoing political confrontation that stops short of altering institutional outcomes.

The move stood in contrast to the broader market’s lack of follow-through at the top. Bitcoin BTC$88,605.45 was little changed over the same period, reinforcing a familiar dynamic in which altcoins rally on positioning and rotation rather than a fresh directional push from BTC itself. Ether posted modest gains, but neither token matched the intensity of the move in privacy assets.

In a telegram note, market maker Flowdesk said the rally reflected traders being caught offside after the holiday period, with suppressed funding rates through December setting the stage for short covering and risk-on repositioning once public liquidity returned. In that environment, mid- to large-cap tokens, such as XMR, ZEC, and SOL, moved aggressively even as BTC slipped back into a range-bound pattern.

Flowdesk added that bitcoin’s near-term price action is increasingly being driven by ETF flows rather than conviction trading, leaving the market without a clear macro narrative. Volatility markets echoed that uncertainty, with traders rolling bullish bets further out the curve as near-term upside failed to materialize.

The firm noted that stablecoin flows have also been choppy, with USDT trading at a small discount at times, a sign of capital rotating in and out rather than committing decisively.

For now, the result is a market willing to chase relative value and thematic trades like privacy tokens, while bitcoin waits for a catalyst strong enough to break it out of its tightening range.