Why is Monero price up today?

Monero price is up more than 12% on October 22, climbing toward $650 as trading volumes jumped and renewed futures activity helped the privacy coin break through a key resistance level.

According to data from crypto.news, XMR was trading at $648.26 as of 06:02 UTC, up 12.17% over the preceding 24 hours, while daily trading volume rose 39.77% to approximately $251.1 million.

The rally followed several days of price recovery that saw Monero move from around $550 on October 15 to above $600 earlier this week. Bitcoin, meanwhile, recorded a relatively modest 0.26% gain over the same 24-hour period, leaving XMR among the stronger performers in the cryptocurrency market.

Although no major project announcement has been confirmed as the immediate reason behind Thursday’s gains, the latest move coincided with rising trading activity, improving technical momentum and increased participation in Monero’s derivatives market.

Why is Monero price rising today?

One of the main developments behind Monero’s latest rally has been its move above the $600 to $620 resistance region, where buyers had previously struggled to maintain momentum.

Crypto analyst Ali Martinez identified an ascending triangle formation on XMR’s hourly chart on October 20 and suggested that a breakout above $602 could open the way toward $630.

With Monero now trading near $650, the privacy focused altcoin has moved beyond both levels identified in that assessment, although a sustained breakout would still depend on whether buyers can defend the previous resistance area.

The move followed a volatile trading session on October 21, when XMR briefly slipped toward $570 before recovering above $600.

Monero had already been gaining ground in the days leading up to Thursday’s rally, with its price climbing from approximately $549.54 on October 15 to $621.91 by October 21, according to historical market data.

Trading activity picked up as the recovery continued, with daily volume reaching $251.1 million on Thursday as XMR approached the next resistance region. 

Monero futures activity has picked up

Derivatives data provides another explanation for the renewed attention around XMR, as traders have been rebuilding positions following the cryptocurrency’s recovery from its October lows.

According to Santiment Intelligence, Monero’s futures open interest reached $198 million on October 20, while the number of outstanding contracts measured in XMR rose approximately 22% between October 15 and October 20.

During the same five-day period, Monero’s price gained roughly 9%, indicating that futures participation was recovering alongside the cryptocurrency’s market value.

As crypto.news previously reported, the October 20 open interest reading remained below the September 5 peak of $208.8 million, despite claims that leveraged positioning had reached record levels.

Santiment’s figures showed approximately 329,000 XMR in outstanding contracts on October 20, compared with around 402,000 XMR on September 2.

Funding rates presented a somewhat different picture. The seven-day average funding rate during October 14 to October 20 stood at roughly 0.9 times its reference average, compared with 2.7 times during September 28 to October 4.

The readings suggested that futures positions were recovering without the same elevated funding conditions recorded earlier in October.

Thursday’s market report placed aggregate open interest at approximately $155.2 million and perpetual funding at 0.0117%, although the figures came from a different reporting snapshot and should not be directly compared with Santiment’s earlier totals.

Privacy coin interest and Monero’s recent developments

Interest in privacy-focused cryptocurrencies has remained another part of Monero’s recent market narrative, although available evidence does not establish a direct connection between that interest and Thursday’s rally.

Monero developers released version 0.18.5.4 of the Fluorine Fermi software on October 16, introducing several maintenance fixes involving DNSSEC validation and remote procedure call functionality.

The update addressed checkpoint verification, blocklists and software update checks, while restoring certain string-to-integer conversions in JSON requests.

Developers described the release as a minor maintenance update, with no confirmed evidence that it directly triggered the latest price movement.

The project’s longer-term development plans include FCMP++, a proposed privacy upgrade intended to improve Monero’s transaction privacy architecture. No new implementation milestone has been established as the immediate catalyst behind October 22’s price gains.

Can Monero price hold above $650?

With Monero now trading near $650, traders will be watching whether XMR can move past the $650 to $660 resistance region and hold above it. Breaking above that could support further gains, although analysts have yet to identify a clear upside target beyond these levels.

If buyers fail to maintain the current momentum, $620 could provide the first level of support, followed by $600, which had previously acted as a major resistance level. A drop below $600 could see XMR revisit $570, where buyers stepped in during the October 21 trading session.

Further down, analysts have identified the $540 to $550 range as another potential support area, while an earlier bearish chart pattern pointed to $520 as a possible target if Monero slipped below $575.

Meanwhile, derivatives data showed approximately $338,000 in liquidations, with perpetual funding rates remaining positive. The funding readings indicated that traders holding long positions were paying a modest premium to maintain their positions.