The Monero price has done well today. The XMR has risen by more than 18% from its intraday low of $400 to the current $475. The currency has a market capitalisation of more than $8.44 billion, making it the 24th biggest digital currency in the world.
What happened: For starters, Monero is a cryptocurrency that was started in 2014. The goal of the developers was to have a cryptocurrency that allowed fully anonymous transactions.
Unlike Bitcoin and Litecoin, transactions made with Litecoin cannot be tracked. In fact, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has offered a reward of $625,000 for any person who can hack the network. So far, no one has been able to do that. In 2020, the IRS awarded Chainalysis and Integra a $1.25 million contract to crack Monero’s code. They have not yet achieved that.
In addition to Monero, other top privacy-focused cryptocurrencies are Tezos, Dash, and ZCash.
Colonial pipeline hack
Colonial hack: The Monero price is rising today as investors react to a major hack that has affected a major pipeline in the United States owned by Colonial. The hack was done by DarkSide, a hacker gang that offers “hacking-as-a-service.” Basically, the group that develops hacking tools and offers them to other hackers. It then receives payments when the hacking takes place. In fact, research shows that most hacked companies pay the hackers. The group said:
“Our goal is to make money, and not creating problems for society. From today we introduce moderation and check each company that our partners want to encrypt to avoid social consequences in the future.”
Many cryptocurrency enthusiasts believe that the hackers will ask their ransom using Monero, which is the most efficient privacy-focused cryptocurrency in the world. Still, while the amount asked will be insignificant in relation to the size of Monero, many investors believe that more people will add XMR into their portfolio in anticipation of more hacks. Furthermore, the number of hacks has been on a rising trend recently.
Monero price technical analysis
The four-hour chart shows that the XMR price dropped to $400 on Monday and then surged to $475. The price is above the ascending trendline that is shown in black. The price is slightly below the pivot point of the standard pivot point. It is also slightly above the important support at $440. Further, it is being supported by the 25-day and 50-day moving averages. Most importantly, it is forming a bullish consolidation pattern.
Therefore, in my view, I suspect that the Monero price will keep rising as bulls target the first standard pivot resistance level at $540. However, a drop below $440 will invalidate this prediction.
