The Monero Moon (Issue 76)

Table of Contents:

• Development, Releases, and Technology

• General News

• Events and Meetings

• Exchanges and Merchants

• Community Crowdfunding

• Trading and Speculation

• Network Metrics

• Entertainment

Development, Releases, and Technology

Monero’s hashrate has reached an all-time high of 4.39 Ghash/s, signaling strong network security and growing miner participation. The sustained increase suggests rising interest in Monero mining, likely driven by its resistance to ASIC centralization and the increasing importance of private, censorship-resistant digital money.

selsta has published a to-do list for the upcoming Monero v0.18.4.0 Fluorine Fermi release, outlining key pull requests that need to be merged before tagging the update. Notable changes include reducing blockchain sync disk writes, cleaning up span/connection_context, and addressing a P2P functional test failure. Monero v0.18.4.0 is expected to be tagged once these issues are resolved. Selsta has also posted a January 2025 Monero development CCS report, which details recent progress on the update, including improvements to sync times and HackerOne conflict resolutions. The full report is available on GitHub.

Luke Parker aka kayabaNerve announced that his implementation of Generalized Bulletproofs for Monero has been audited, marking another step toward full verification of FCMP++ libraries. The audit report found the implementation well-written and suitable for its intended purpose.

antichainalysis has released moneroc, a tool designed to automate Monero churning by distributing funds across multiple XMR accounts within the same wallet. The tool interacts with monero-wallet-rpc to create new accounts, shuffle balances, and introduce randomized delays, aiming to enhance privacy and transaction obfuscation. While some argue that churning can improve privacy, others believe it may decrease anonymity by creating identifiable patterns. The developer provides a detailed writeup on the topic, along with installation instructions and usage examples on GitHub. Users are advised to exercise caution, as there is no consensus on the effectiveness of churning.

Rucknium has completed the second milestone for their OSPEAD CCS proposal, which focuses on Optimal Static Parametric Estimation of Arbitrary Distributions (OSPEAD) to strengthen Monero’s resistance to statistical attacks. The initial probability density function has been submitted for scientific review by a panel consisting of ArticMine, isthmus, and hyc. This means Monero is being further strengthened against statistical analysis techniques that could potentially be used to weaken its privacy, helping ensure transactions remain untraceable and resistant to advanced tracking methods. The full PGP-signed message is available on GitLab.

j-berman has published the first 2025 CCS progress report for his full-time Monero (FCMPs++) development of his funding proposal. Key improvements include a 30% speed increase in tree building by implementing kayabaNerve’s torsion check, the implementation of FCMP++ prove and verify functions in the Rust FFI, and updates to a work-in-progress PR rebased onto master. More details are available in the full report on GitLab.

jeffro256 has completed their full-time 2024 Q4 Monero development CCS, making progress on Carrot and other improvements. Recent updates include a Wownero decoy selection fix, Carrot protocol optimizations, switch commitments, and changes to the X25519 key exchange. Carrot is an addressing protocol for Monero’s upcoming FCMP++ upgrade that maintains backward compatibility with existing addresses while enhancing privacy, usability, and supporting outgoing view keys. Work on Carrot is still ongoing, with refinements and additional features being developed ahead of the FCMP++ hard fork. Jeffro256 has submitted a new CCS proposal to continue this work full-time in Q1 2025, focusing on integrating Carrot into Monero’s main wallet codepaths, preparing for a testnet, and coordinating implementation audits. The full dev update is available on GitLab.

Risen Crypto has published an in-depth analysis of Bulletproofs and their application in Monero’s range proofs. The post covers the mathematical foundations, including Pedersen commitments, inner product arguments, and vector polynomial commitments, before delving into Bulletproofs optimization and their role in verifying Monero transactions. The detailed breakdown explains how Monero ensures transaction amounts remain within valid ranges without revealing specific values. Check it out here.

SChernykh has released P2Pool v4.3, bringing initial sync improvements, new features, and bug fixes. The update adds command-line options for specifying a data directory and disabling HTTP on Stratum ports, while also improving initial sync speed by up to one second. Fixes include resolving issues with Let’s Encrypt TLS certificates and preventing occasional sync failures. The full changelog is available on GitHub.

Running a Monero node is one of the best ways to support the network, enhance your own privacy, and verify transactions without relying on third parties. It helps decentralize Monero, making it more resilient against censorship and attacks. Plus, running a node is easier than ever—no advanced skills required! You can run a node on your desktop or even a Raspberry Pi with simple setup steps. By running a node, you gain full control over your transactions and contribute to keeping Monero private and decentralized! To get started, check out these beginner-friendly guides:

• How to Run a Monero Node (sethforprivacy)

• P2Pool – Get Started

Cyrix126 has released Gupaxx v1.8.0, featuring new UI enhancements, internal upgrades, and bug fixes. Gupaxx is a user-friendly mining software designed to simplify Monero mining and integrate with the XMRvsBeast raffle. This update improves the advanced and simple submenus, adds the ability to hide unused tabs, and introduces new fields for Node, P2Pool, Xmrig, and Proxy settings. A “fast mode” button has been added for Node, alongside a P2Pool binding port field and an Xmrig token field. Internal improvements enhance process awareness, update dependencies, and address several bugs, including fixing a proxy IP binding issue, reducing unnecessary host pings, and optimizing Xmrig’s initial output delay on Unix. Check out the full changelog, sources, and verification files on GitHub.

sukunetsiz has released Kabus v0.8.1, an open-source Monero-based marketplace script. Kabus aims to provide a modern and flexible foundation for privacy-focused, legal Monero marketplaces. The latest update introduces a marketplace commission feature, a completed checkout page, improved file management, and an integrated Tor vanity address generator. Security features include PGP integration, two-factor authentication, a mnemonic recovery system, and a unique Rhombus-Captcha, along with Monero wallet integration for vendor registration. Future updates plan to expand Monero support to escrow functionality. Kabus is still under development (as usual, proceed with caution), and contributions are welcome on GitHub.

binarybaron and einliterflasche have published a third progress report for their XMR-BTC atomic swaps ecosystem CCS, focusing on native Tor support, transaction reliability, mobile support preparation, and GUI improvements. Recent updates include an extended history command, dependency updates, Tor obfs4 bridge support, and the release of .deb packages for the GUI. Read the full update on GitLab.

ofrnxmr has completed the third milestone for their BasicSwapDEX CCS, delivering updates to core functionality, the GUI, and script management tools. Improvements include coin config fixes, core updates, swap logic refinements, and Dogecoin integration, along with a redesigned taker GUI, enhanced offer creation, and order book improvements using WebSockets. The next sprint will focus on security features, API authentication, and AMM integration. Read the full update on GitLab. You can get started with BasicSwapDEX here.

tobtoht has published the first Q1 2025 progress report for their full-time Monero and Feather Wallet development under the CCS. This update focuses on core build system improvements and CI work, with contributions including 4 Feather Wallet commits and 43 Monero core PRs. Notable changes include removing MSVC from CMake, containerizing Ubuntu CLI jobs, and a Code of Conduct update. The full report is available on GitLab.

Cuprate, an alternative Monero node implementation written in Rust, has achieved full verification sync in just 20 hours, marking a significant improvement in Monero node performance. Unlike fast-sync, which relies on pre-verified block hashes, full verification sync independently validates every block and transaction from genesis, typically taking several days to a week with monerod. Cuprate has demonstrated a 40% improvement in sync time on VPS setups, with consumer-level machines now capable of fully verifying the blockchain in under 24 hours.

To further advance Cuprate, both hinto-janaiyo and Boog900 have submitted CCS proposals for continued full-time development. hinto-janaiyo’s proposal includes Cuprate’s first alpha release cycle, writing a user book, progressing Q1/Q2 roadmap goals, and contributing to Monero’s FCMP++ reviews if needed. Meanwhile, Boog900’s proposal focuses on releasing an alpha version of cuprated, improving consensus APIs, and optimizing fast-sync. Both proposals are available on GitLab.

SNeedlewoods has submitted a new CCS proposal to continue part-time Monero development for approximately 4.5 months. A relatively newer Monero developer, they previously introduced a feature-complete Wallet API, which is now pending review. This new proposal focuses on hardening sensitive material in the Wallet API and replacing wallet2 with the Wallet API in simplewallet. The estimated timeline is about two weeks for security improvements and four months for the wallet integration. The full proposal is available on GitLab.

Napoly and Deverick have submitted a CCS proposal to develop a Monero plugin for BTCPay Server 2.0. With the release of BTCPay Server 2.0, the platform has moved to a plugin-based architecture, breaking existing Monero integration. This proposal aims to refactor Monero’s support into a standalone plugin, ensuring merchants can continue accepting XMR payments. The project includes a proof of concept, a minimum viable product, UI/UX improvements, and merchant migration support. The full proposal is available on GitLab.

Monero Observer has published a new Monero Dev Activity Report to provide a big-picture view of Monero’s development activity throughout the past week. If you’re interested in the nitty gritty, check it out here.

woodser recently released Haveno v1.0.18, with various fixes and improvements, including a 98% reduction in disk usage, Tor browser and binary updates, increased trade limits for “no deposit” offers, and performance enhancements for offer views. Other changes include renaming ‘Cash at ATM’ to ‘Cardless Cash’, adding a startup flag for specifying blockchain location, and updating Czech translations. In case you didn’t know, Haveno is a decentralized, non-custodial exchange that allows users to trade Monero (XMR) without relying on intermediaries. The full changelog is available on GitHub.

m2049r has released Monerujo v4.1.6, a patch update with fixes for Exolix exchange integration, UI improvements, and translation updates. Changes include IPv6-friendly node parsing, default node updates, a toolbar fix, a monochrome launcher icon, and added translations for Arabic, Swedish, Turkish, and French. Users should back up their seed and verify the SHA256 hash on GitHub before updating.

Cake Labs recently released Cake Wallet v4.23.0, introducing passphrase restore support for Monero (XMR) and Wownero (WOW), along with Zano wallet integration. The update also adds Chainflip, a decentralized cross-chain exchange, alongside UI enhancements and bug fixes. The latest version of Monero.com v1.20.0, a Monero-only wallet, was also recently released. More details, downloads, and beta sign-ups are available on GitHub and forum.cakewallet.com.

General News

The Ungovernable Misfits Podcast, hosted by Max and Seth, a well-known Monero community member, focuses on privacy, self-sovereignty, and censorship-resistant technology. The show covers topics like decentralized finance, privacy tools, and digital freedom. The latest Monero Monthly episode explores verifying Monero’s supply, discussions on Haveno and RetoSwap, mining on P2Pool using Gupax, and updates on BTCPayServer’s Monero plugin. Seth breaks down Monero’s supply auditability, explaining how range-proofs and coinbase transparency ensure integrity. Listen to the full episode here.

Monero Talk recently interviewed full-time Monero developer Justin Berman to discuss FCMP++ integration and the future of Monero. Berman shared insights into his six months of work on full-chain membership proofs++, a major upgrade aimed at strengthening Monero’s privacy and security. He also highlighted the Carrot project, being developed alongside FCMP++, and expressed confidence that these changes could be implemented by late 2025, with code ready for testing in the next couple of months. The discussion touched on improving wallet sync times by 60-70%, growing developer contributions—especially around Cuprate—and even broader topics like Trump’s involvement with meme coins and quantum resistance in crypto. The full interview is available on Monero Talk.

Monero Talk also streamed a recent episode of Monerotopia. Monerotopia Episode 201 features a Monero price report with Bawdy, weekly news updates with Tony, and discussions on privacy, regulation, and crypto developments—including Cuprate, Tornado Cash, and more.

Monero’s tail emission guarantees long-term miner incentives and low fees for users. An older, but still relevant explanatory video by VOSTOEMISIO and xenumonero breaks it down, with funding from the Monero community. Watch it here or click the image below.

Forbes published an article titled “Is Monero Keeping Bitcoin’s Cypherpunk Dream Alive?” exploring how Bitcoin has evolved into an institutionally accepted asset while Monero remains a bastion of financial privacy. The article highlights Monero’s resilience despite major exchange delistings and its continued role as a censorship-resistant digital currency. While Bitcoin is now embraced by Wall Street, Monero stays true to the cypherpunk ethos, prioritizing privacy and fungibility. The piece suggests that both cryptocurrencies serve different but complementary purposes in the financial ecosystem.

El Cronista México published an article on Monero’s role as “effective but digital money,” featuring Andrés, a longtime Monero advocate and developer. He discusses Monero’s security, privacy, and resilience against regulation while debunking misconceptions about its legality. Andrés, known for his work on Monerujo and Monero.garden, highlights Monero’s usability for everyday transactions and its growing adoption. He has spoken at MoneroKon and Monerotopia, reinforcing Monero’s role as a censorship-resistant payment option.

Moner-Master, a digital marketer, is running a Meta advertising campaign to promote Monero and privacy technology by tapping into growing concerns over surveillance. The campaign introduces Monero through a “Resist Surveillance” email series and a setup guide, with the goal of reaching new demographics despite Meta’s anti-crypto stance. Community members can contribute to the ad spend via Kuno, with supporters receiving campaign updates through a SimpleX group. More information can be found here.

Revuo Monero Issue #226 has been published. Check it out for a weekly dose of Monero news.

MAGIC Grants has announced the results of the 2025 MAGIC Monero Fund election. ack-j and kowalabearhugs will serve 2-year terms, while rottenwheel, Tacolopo, and XMRfamily will serve 1-year terms beginning on January 31, 2025. MAGIC Grants is a public charity that funds privacy-focused technology and financial literacy initiatives, including projects within the Monero ecosystem. The election used a ranked-choice voting method, and MAGIC Grants also thanked the outgoing committee members—monerobull, artlimber, Rucknium, and kayabaNerve—for their contributions. The full election results are available on the MAGIC Grants website.

Former President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, in January 2025. Ulbricht, who had been serving a life sentence without parole since 2015, was convicted of running the darknet marketplace, which facilitated anonymous drug sales using Bitcoin. The pardon has reignited debates over sentencing in cyber-related crimes and the broader implications for online privacy and financial freedom.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in November 2024 that the Treasury Department exceeded its authority in sanctioning Tornado Cash. The court found that the crypto mixer’s immutable smart contracts do not constitute property subject to U.S. sanctions laws, marking a major win for financial privacy advocates. The ruling challenges the government’s approach to regulating decentralized technologies and raises questions about the future of privacy tools in crypto.

Events and Meetings

A Monero meet-up is happening in Vienna, Austria, on Friday, February 21, 2025, at 18:00, hosted by OrangeFren.com and sponsored by WizardSwap.io. The event will take place at District Working & Event Venue, Donau-City-Straße 3, 1220 Wien, and tickets are free. Additionally, WizardSwap is offering attendees access to their invite-only liquidity pool, allowing users to earn a share of trading fees or swap between supported coins with 0 fees. Get your free ticket to the meet-up here.

The next Monero Tech meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 17, 2025, at 18:00 UTC in the #no-wallet-left-behind IRC/Matrix channels. Chaired by rbrunner, the agenda will cover topics such as Seraphis/JAMTIS, Full-Chain Membership Proofs (FCMPs), and other long-term Monero development issues. More information can be found here.

The next MoneroKon 2025 Planning Meeting is set for Saturday, February 15, 2025, at 17:00 UTC in the #monerokon Matrix/IRC channels. The agenda is available on agenda.monerokon.org, and logs from the previous meeting can be found on Monero Observer. MoneroKon 2025 is scheduled for June 20–22 in Prague.

A Monero Research Lab (MRL) meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 17:00 UTC. The agenda is expected to cover general updates, a prize contest to optimize FCMP cryptography code, research on Autonomous System (AS) peer connection rules to reduce spy node risk, and the reliability of MRL technical note 0010. You can find more information about the meeting here, thanks to the Monero Observer. The MRL meeting will take place in the #monero-research-lab channel on IRC/Matrix. You can find the chat logs of the previous meeting here.

Exchanges and Merchants

Serai DEX, a Monero focused decentralized exchange in development, is making steady progress toward trustless cross-chain swaps. Their Bitcoin library has been audited, Monero libraries are currently under review, and Ethereum libraries have been sent for auditing. They’re also handling quotes for their 1-round robust PVSS, a key component in secure key generation.

Ulmo pointed out that Bity ATMs across Switzerland now support direct Monero purchases with CHF and EUR, offering a convenient, non-custodial, KYC-free way to acquire XMR.

Monero continues to dominate search queries on OrangeFren.com, a search engine for no-KYC, no sign-up instant exchanges. Over the past six months, Monero has consistently led in search volume, maintaining a 30-40% share each month. In January 2025, Monero accounted for 40% of searches, surpassing Bitcoin at 25% and all other cryptocurrencies combined at 35%. Despite marketing efforts targeting Bitcoin users, Lightning Network searches remained at just 4%, highlighting Monero’s strong demand among privacy-conscious users.

PlayMonero.com has introduced Proof of Reserves for its platform, providing transparency for users placing bets on the blockchain. The proof is updated every 30 minutes and is accessible in JSON format for easy verification. This initiative demonstrates that Monero reserves can be publicly audited while maintaining privacy. The latest reserve proof can be viewed directly on their website.

Community Crowdfunding

Core Team member binaryFate has published the long-overdue Monero General Fund transparency report, covering fund balances, spending policies, and security updates. Following the CCS wallet hack in late 2023 (unrelated to the GF wallet), he revamped security by deprecating the old General Fund wallet and consolidating funds into a new wallet, GF-Vault.

Current balances:

• General Fund (GF): 162.98 XMR

• GF-Vault: 15,584.23 XMR

• BTC donations: 0.218 BTC

The view-only General Fund wallets can be verified via secret view keys and exported key images. Full transaction records are available in a spreadsheet. Community discussion is open before a final report is published on getmonero.org. More information can be found here.

Several crowdfunding proposals are awaiting community feedback before they can start accepting funds through the Community Crowdfunding System (CCS). For now, they are just proposals, but if they receive some positive feedback from the community they will be moved to a “Funding Required” stage so that they can accept Monero donations through the CCS.

CCS proposals currently open:

Funding required:

Trading and Speculation

VIPROSE predicts that Monero (XMR) has hit an accumulation zone and is primed for a major rally. With a Falling Wedge breakout forming, they believe this dip presents a strong buying opportunity before a significant price surge.

Scolilay believes Monero has completed a textbook Wyckoff bottom accumulation, setting up for a potential 200% gain. They argue that despite delistings, lower liquidity gives whales more control, and suggest either selling half at 180% profit or holding for up to two years.

Network Metrics

Total Monero in Circulation — 18,554,672 XMR

Monero Total Marketcap — $4,127,504,058

Coinmarketcap Ranking — #29 (last issue – #37)

XMR/USD Price —  $221 USD

XMR/BTC Price — 0.002317 BTC

Average Transaction Fee — 0.00028 XMR ($0.062)

Monero Network Hashrate —4.12 Ghash/s

Monero Mining Pools Hashrate Distribution —

Entertainment

Here are the Top 10 Monero (XMR) Holders, thanks to slywalkers –

Donate

If you like the newsletter and want more of this content, then shout me a round of beers by donating some spare Monero you didn’t lose during your boating accident.

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Have we missed something?

If we’ve missed something important, let us know! As this is our first issue after a few months, we might have overlooked some news. Feel free to DM if there’s anything you’d like included in a future issue.

Support Monero

Want to contribute to the Monero Project? Developers, marketers, event coordinators, translators, Instagram personalities, meme creators, and public speakers — whatever your skills may be, it is extremely likely there is something you can do to assist. Reach out to the Monero community on Reddit, IRC/Matrix, GitHub, Twitter, or Telegram. The official Monero website is GetMonero.org.

Past Issues

Issue 75 / Issue 74 / Issue 73 / Issue 72 / Issue 71 / Issue 70 / Issue 69 / Issue 68 Issue 67 Issue 66 / Issue 65 / Issue 64 / Issue 63 / Issue 62 / Issue 61 / Issue 60 / Issue 59 / Issue 58 / Issue 57 / Issue 56 / Issue 55 / Issue 54 / Issue 53 / Issue 52 / Issue 51 / Issue 50 / Issue 49 / Issue 48 / Issue 47 / Issue 46 / Issue 45 / Issue 44 / Issue 43 / Issue 42 / Issue 41 / Issue 40 / Issue 39 / Issue 38 / Issue 37 / Issue 36 / Issue 35 / Issue 34 / Issue 33 / Issue 32 / Issue 31 / Issue 30 / Issue 29 / Issue 28 / Issue 27 / Issue 26 / Issue 25 / Issue 24 / Issue 23 / Issue 22 / Issue 21 / Issue 20 / Issue 19 / Issue 18 / Issue 17 / Issue 16 / Issue 15 / Issue 14 / Issue 13 / Issue 12 / Issue 11 / Issue 10 / Issue 9 / Issue 8 / Issue 7 / Issue 6 / Issue 5 / Issue 4 / Issue 3 / Issue 2 / Issue 1

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DISCLAIMER: This publication contains opinions for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Information may contain errors and omissions; use it solely at your own risk. The author of this publication and/or the authors of articles linked to or from this site may have financial investments that could bias their opinions, including ownership of Monero currency. No website, service, or product mentioned in the newsletter constitutes an endorsement; use them at your own risk. Always do your own research, form your own opinions, and never take risks with money or trust third parties without verifying their credibility.

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