The Monero Moon (Issue 81)
The Monero Moon is a curated newsletter covering all the latest news within Monero (XMR). We are driven by a compelling need to champion both freedom and financial privacy!
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 been on a tear over the past year, climbing steadily and recently hitting an all-time high of 6.49 GH/s on May 25, 2025. At the time of writing, the network sits at 4.71 GH/s, still well above historical averages. The surge likely reflects growing miner participation driven by rising XMR prices, the launch of Tari merge-mining, the harnessing of excess AI computing power, and anticipation around upcoming network upgrades like FCMPs.
In case you didn’t know, j-berman has announced the FCMP++ Optimization Competition, inviting developers to optimize two key cryptographic libraries: helioselene and ec-divisors. These libraries are critical to Monero’s upcoming FCMP++ upgrade, impacting transaction construction, wallet sync, and daemon performance. Winners will receive 100 XMR and 250 XMR respectively, with submissions open from April 28 to June 30, funded by the Monero General Fund.
You can learn more about FCMP++ integration into Monero here.
binarybaron has announced major upcoming changes to the UnstoppableSwap protocol, including early Bitcoin refund functionality. This new feature lets Alice return Bob’s BTC without waiting for a timelock, improving swap reliability when Monero can’t be locked. The update adds new refund states and aims to enhance UX for edge cases like out-of-sync daemons and overloaded mempools.
hinto-janai has posted their second progress report for their CCS proposal to work full-time on Cuprate and FCMP++ reviews. Over Milestone 2, they logged 360 hours, released v0.0.3, and completed the initial RPC server and documentation, with RPC usage details included in PR #451. The plan to bring Monerod RPC compatibility to Cuprate is progressing steadily, with further testing and endpoint support to come.
xnergy5 shared that Qubic has quickly become a top ten Monero miner. Qubic, an AI-focused project with excess computing power, expanded into Monero mining in late February 2025 by utilizing idle system time.
Cake Wallet and Monero.com just got major updates with version 5.0.0. The new release brings fresh themes, UI/UX improvements, bug fixes, and enhancements to Silent Payments, Payjoin, and Ledger support. Cake Wallet remains a multi-coin app, while Monero.com is Monero-only. APKs and full changelog available on GitHub.
Stack Wallet v2.2.0 is out now, released by rehrar with several new features and fixes. This update adds duress PIN support for mobile, a bypass Tor option for Monero local nodes, Spark Names for testnet, and various Ethereum-related improvements. Release notes, binaries, and SHA256 hashes are available on GitHub.
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.
General News
Schmidt has released MoneroEcosystem v7.5, adding a new Market category page, the Onion Monero Blockchain Explorer and logo, updating the logo for KYCNOT.ME, and a few other changes. Monero Eco provides a clear graphic of the Monero ecosystem for users. Explore the latest updates at monero.eco.
Coin Bureau (2.67M subs) just dropped a new Monero video. With XMR climbing steadily since April, the episode recaps Monero’s history, tech, and common FUD, covers recent delistings, explores price action and decade-long chart patterns, and highlights key roadmap milestones. It appears well-researched and offers a solid overview of Monero for newcomers. Check it out below.
CoinDesk published an article titled “Monero Flips Litecoin and Toncoin as XMR Enters Top 25 Tokens,” noting that Monero's market cap has overtaken both TON and LTC after more than doubling in price this year. While the piece acknowledges Monero’s rise, it leans heavily into crime-related narratives, drawing criticism from the Monero community on Reddit for ignoring the legitimate need for privacy. Despite the media spin, supporters see this milestone as further evidence of Monero’s utility and growing relevance in a world increasingly hostile to financial freedom.
snangsnang shared a popular post on r/Monero arguing that Monero delistings and attacks from institutions should be seen as signs that it’s working as intended. They discuss how Bitcoin has been co-opted by the very forces it was meant to subvert, pointing to historical warnings from Satoshi and growing institutional embrace of BTC as red flags. The post includes discussion on Bitcoin’s loss of privacy and Monero’s continued resilience.
Anti Moonboy News 28 is out. In the latest stream, xenu explores Monero’s cultural and technical direction, gives shoutouts to supporters, and reflects on community sentiment. He also covers the release of Darknet Market Maximalism, the China Telegram market shutdown, stablecoin surveillance tools, the December 2024 Coinbase data breach, wrench attacks, and Bitcoin conference commentary. The show wraps with Monero’s new hashrate ATH and the ongoing media portrayal of Monero as “controversial.” Watch or listen here.
Revuo Monero Issue #239 has been published. Check it out for a weekly dose of Monero news.
Pluja has announced a major redesign of KYCnot.me, now faster, more modern, and still fully functional without JavaScript. The upgrade introduces anonymous user accounts, a karma-based system, native reviews and discussions, AI-powered moderation, and improved search and filtering. New features also include dual privacy/trust scores, event timelines, ToS summaries, and a custom notification system. KYCnot is a popular Monero-aligned directory for finding no-KYC exchanges and services, helping users preserve their privacy when buying or spending XMR.
Events and Meetings
MoneroKon 2025 is coming to Prague on June 20–22! Join privacy advocates, developers, researchers, and enthusiasts from around the world for three days of talks, workshops, and community building—all focused on digital freedom and financial privacy. Tickets are still available.
The next MoneroKon 2025 Planning Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 31, 2025, at 17:00 UTC in the #monerokon Matrix/IRC channels. The agenda will be available on agenda.monerokon.org.
Douglas Tuman has announced that MoneroTopia 2025 will take place at Porcfest in Lancaster, New Hampshire this June. Held during one of the largest liberty gatherings in the U.S., MoneroTopia will feature a dedicated tent with talks, panels, and workshops focused on privacy, freedom tech, and opt-out tools beyond Monero. It will run concurrently with MoneroKon in Prague, with live streams connecting both events so attendees at either location won’t miss out. No separate ticket is needed—just get your Porcfest pass. If you’re keen to sponsor, speak, host a workshop, or volunteer, reach out to MoneroTopia@protonmail.com.
The next Monero Tech meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 2, 2025, at 18:00 UTC in the #no-wallet-left-behind IRC/Matrix channels. Chaired by rbrunner7, the agenda will likely cover topics such as Seraphis/JAMTIS, Full-Chain Membership Proofs (FCMPs), and other long-term Monero development. More information and previous meeting chat logs can be found here.
The next Cuprate Meeting is set for Tuesday, June 3, 2025, at 18:00 UTC in the #cuprate Matrix and IRC channels. Cuprate is an initiative to build an alternative Monero node in Rust. Boog900 is expected to moderate the meeting, with an agenda including greetings, project updates, next steps, and other business. Check out the Cuprate repo or previous logs via Monero Observer.
Exchanges and Merchants
UNTRACEABLE has updated their Monero delisting chart. It is essentially an XMR/USD price chart annotated with key dates when Monero was delisted or banned.
Community Crowdfunding
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.
Trading and Speculation
XMR/BTC has retraced after its recent epic run and is now retesting the bottom of the weekly cloud. Bulls will be hoping this level holds in the coming weeks, setting up a potential move back towards the top of the cloud.
Network Metrics
Total Monero in Circulation — 18,600,390 XMR
Monero Total Marketcap — $6,397,965,018
Coinmarketcap Ranking — #23
XMR ‘street price’ from RetoSwap - $400
XMR/USD Price — $344
XMR/BTC Price — 0.003206 BTC
Monero Network Hashrate — ~4.64 GH/s
Monero Mining Pools Hashrate Distribution —
Entertainment
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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 80 / Issue 79 / Issue 78 / Issue 77 Issue 76 / 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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Fantastic stuff!