Crypto: Monero Use Holds Despite Delistings As Darknet Markets Shift To Xmr

TRM Labs says Monero usage remains above pre-2022 levels as darknet markets shift toward XMR, while unusual node behavior may offer investigators network-level clues.

Data shows transaction usage in 2024 and 2025 stayed above levels seen before 2022, suggesting demand did not fade even after many big trading platforms removed or restricted the token over traceability concerns, TRM Labs said.

The findings also revealed that Bitcoin (BTC) remains the primary currency for real-world ransom payments. Ransomware operators often request Monero and sometimes offer discounts for it, but victims still tend to pay in Bitcoin.

However, darknet marketplaces appear to be moving in the opposite direction. Researchers found that 48% of newly launched darknet markets in 2025 supported only Monero, a “notable increase compared to earlier years,” the report said.

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While Monero’s cryptography hides the sender, recipient and amount, researchers looked beyond the blockchain to examine how the network carries transactions across the internet. They found that about 14% to 15% of Monero nodes behaved differently than expected, showing unusual timing patterns and connections clustered on certain servers.

Such behavior does not mean the network was hacked. Instead, it suggests some operators may run many connected nodes that can watch how a transaction spreads through the system. In peer-to-peer networks, computers that see a transaction earlier than others may gain clues about where it came from.

“Although Monero’s on-chain cryptography remains unchanged, network behavior can impact theoretical anonymity properties if observers can see message propagation,” the report said.

The upgrade focuses on protecting against so-called “spy nodes,” a term used in the Monero community for nodes or groups of nodes that try to link transactions to users’ IP addresses. These nodes do not break Monero’s encryption but may observe how transactions travel across the network.

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Source: CoinTelegraph