the start of this year, Monero (XMR) went for around five dollars apiece. Fast-forward 12 months and the coin currently trades for $277, having dipped from highs recorded midweek just shy of the $300 mark. Much of today’s mainstream media coverage of the space is rooted in the incredible rise in price we’ve seen in bitcoin and, to a lesser degree, Litecoin and Ethereum.
As Monero’s 6,000% 12-month appreciation illustrates, however, these mainstream coins aren’t the only ones that have produced supranormal returns for early investors.
So what’s behind the action in this relatively under the radar token and what can we expect next?
Let’s try and answer those questions.
For anybody new to Monero, the coin is very similar in concept to something like bitcoin or Litecoin but, at the same time, it’s designed in such a way so as to promote a considerable degree of security and anonymity. It’s based on a protocol called CryptoNote which essentially ensures its untraceability, whoever is spending it or receiving it and – at the same time – whoever is trying to follow the coins from one place to another.
There are a couple of reasons why this one is gaining strength right now.
First, it has garnered a very large community of followers, both in terms of your everyday cryptocurrency population and, in addition, some of the biggest names in both this sector and the mainstream security space.
One of these individuals that’s noteworthy is John McAfee, cybersecurity entrepreneur and current CEO of publicly traded MGT Capital Investments Inc. (OTCMKTS: MGTI). McAfee went on record as stating that Monero has the potential to challenge bitcoin as a leading cryptocurrency and, while this seems like an outlandish statement right now, McAfee has proved many wrong in the space already and it would be foolish to write him off, whatever he’s predicting.
So, outside of a McAfee validation, we are also seeing some mainstream commercial interest in Monero and this is, once again, serving to buoy sentiment towards the token.
Specifically, and as per the most recent development for the company and its coin, news hit press this week that more than 40 top recording artists, including Slayer, Weezer, G-Eazy, Sia and Fallout Boy (among others) are now offering their records in return for Monero as a payment method. Notably, Mariah Carey (who is especially big at this time of year) is offering a 15% discount on her website to anybody that pays with Monero.
The arrangement came together as part of what is being referred to as Project Coral Reef and is really one of the first times we’ve seen a large-scale adoption of this type of technology in the music industry; we’ve seen single artists do a similar sort of thing but there are no examples of more than 40 artists coming together, and especially of this caliber, to accept one particular coin.
So what’s next?
Security and anonymity is very high on people’s lists of priorities right now and is becoming increasingly so in the wake of things like the Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) data breach earlier this year.
Coins like Monero offer a simple solution to these concerns and, right now, it’s the coin that is at the top of the list from a privacy perspective.
For us, this suggests that there is still a long way to go in terms of upside potential as the company and its coin grow to satiate the ever-increasing market and consumer demand for exactly the product it’s offering.
Keep in mind that we may see a near term correction (a little deeper than the one that just took place) but, in line with this, any correction could be an opportunity to pick up some cheap coins.