In Q2 2025, Monero (XMR), one of the leading privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, quietly surged by an impressive 150% in just two months. It reached its highest price since June 2021.

Despite the strong rally, XMR’s rise did not make much noise on social media. Few experts or key opinion leaders mentioned it. This breakout is not just a price story — it reflects a larger trend in the crypto market: the growing demand for privacy coins.

What Fueled XMR’s Price Surge in May?

At the time of writing, Monero’s market cap exceeded $7.2 billion, and it entered the top 25 on CoinMarketCap.

During its rally, BeInCrypto reported that XMR hit a peak of $420, marking a 150% increase since early April. At its peak, Monero’s market cap briefly surpassed both Litecoin (LTC) and Toncoin (TON) before correcting to $394, its highest level since June 2021.

One major driver was Monero’s rising hashrate in May. According to CoinWarz, Monero’s hashrate reached 6.33 GH/s, the highest level ever recorded.

This indicates a growing number of miners joining the network, which shows their long-term confidence in Monero’s future. This increase also strengthens the network’s security and decentralization.

Not only are miners showing optimism, but investor interest in XMR is also growing, as seen in Google Trends data.

The Google Trends chart shows that searches for Monero have stayed above the 50-point mark throughout 2025. Over the past two months, that score jumped significantly. It now sits at 90, the highest since August 2024. This spike in attention comes amid rumors that XMR might be relisted on major exchanges.

Rising Demand For Anonymous Transactions in Early 2025

Monero is well known for its strong privacy features. It uses ring signatures and advanced protocols to hide transaction details, including sender identity, receiver, and transaction amount.

Recently, the Monero community has looked forward to a new upgrade: Full Chain Membership Proofs (FCMP++). This upgrade promises quantum resistance and improved transaction anonymity.

“Right now, Monero is facilitating ‘Ring Signatures’ to obscure the sender of each transaction and mixes the real input with a set of decoys (usually 16). FCMP++ will replace this with a new system which allows to prove that a spent output actually belongs to the entire set of outputs on-chain, potentially well over 100 million. Thus, the ‘Anonymity Set’ would be drastically increased, making it almost impossible to say who the true sender was,” CR1337, Core Team of Navio, said.

Meanwhile, XMR’s surge might also be linked to increased illicit activities.

For example, earlier this year, a media outlet linked to the Islamic State’s Pakistan Province reportedly released a poster. It called for “jihad with wealth” and solicited donations in XMR. In another case, hackers allegedly used XMR to launder funds stolen in a $330 million heist in late April. This event coincided with the start of XMR’s three-week price rally.

Nonetheless, not only Monero but the entire privacy coin sector is seeing major gains lately. According to Artemis data, privacy coins grew by over 63% on average in the past month.

Despite ongoing debates over anonymity and anti-censorship ideologies, on-chain privacy solutions remain attractive. This price rally seems to confirm, at least indirectly, that Monero is becoming a symbol of resistance against global financial surveillance.