The Monero cryptocurrency has been experiencing a remarkable bull run this year, with its value continuously climbing towards record-high levels. This upward trend is fueled by increasing demand for privacy-focused coins as a result of the ongoing legal issues surrounding the decentralized privacy protocol known as Tornado Cash. XMR price has risen for seven consecutive weeks, reaching a high of $402 last week and surging over 20% in just one week. 2024’s lows were overcome by a massive 300% gain, resulting in a market capitalization of $7.4 billion. Notably, this performance is particularly noteworthy considering that Monero has been delisted from most major exchanges like Coinbase and Binance. Most trading activity now takes place on platforms such as KuCoin, HTX, and MEXC. Analysts attribute the recent price surge to rising demand for privacy-focused cryptocurrencies as a result of the ongoing legal challenges faced by Tornado Cash, another decentralized privacy protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain. ZCash (ZEC), which has seen significant growth since January, has reached its highest point in nearly 12 months with a price jump exceeding 95% from its lowest point this year. Adding to the recent momentum, there was an unusual transfer of over $330 million worth of Bitcoins (BTC) into Monero by an unknown party, likely related to a hack according to ZachXBT. The source is unclear at this time. Increased demand for Monero could also be driven by hackers’ preference for the coin as it offers increased anonymity compared to stablecoins like USDT and USDC, making them more difficult to track. This anonymity is enabled through various mechanisms including ring signatures, stealth addresses, and ring confidential transactions which make it hard to trace the origin of transactions in Monero. Ring signatures group several transactions together to mask the true sender, while stealth addresses generate unique, one-time addresses for every transaction. Finally, ring confidential hides the amount of funds being moved. Monero price analysis: A bull run fueled by privacy demand.