What is Monero (XMR) and what is it used for?

Monero (XMR) is a cryptocurrency built for private payments. Unlike Bitcoin, where anyone can follow addresses and amounts on a public ledger, Monero hides who paid whom and how much on every transaction. It launched on April 18, 2014, and its name is Esperanto for coin.

What is Monero used for?

Monero is used like other cryptocurrencies, to send value from one person to another, but with privacy switched on by default. The project argues this makes every coin interchangeable, so a merchant never has to worry about receiving coins that are "tainted" by someone else's past use. It also says no central authority runs the network.

That same privacy has attracted illegal use. Darknet market AlphaBay began accepting Monero in 2016 and relaunched in 2021 accepting only Monero. In 2020 the IRS offered up to $625,000 for tools to trace Monero and similar coins. For the wider debate, see what a privacy coin is and whether crypto can be traced.

Monero XMR combines three privacy techniques, according to the project:

• Ring signatures mix the real sender with decoy outputs from the blockchain, so observers cannot tell which one signed.
• Stealth addresses give each payment a one-time destination, so a published address does not reveal incoming payments.
• RingCT hides the amount transferred.

This differs from a crypto mixer, which tries to add privacy to an otherwise public coin after the fact.

How does a Monero wallet work?

The core team publishes two free, open-source wallets: a graphical (GUI) wallet for most users and a command-line wallet for advanced users. Both work with some Ledger and Trezor hardware wallets, as of October 2026.

Monero wallets have a private view key that lets software find your incoming transactions. Light wallets often hand that key to a remote server, which the project warns can weaken privacy. Wallets that scan the chain on your own device keep the key local but sync more slowly. The project also tells users to verify download hashes, since a corrupted file could lead to lost funds.

How does Monero mining work?

Monero uses proof of work with an algorithm called RandomX, adopted in release 0.15. It is designed to run well on ordinary CPUs and to make specialized mining chips less useful, to keep mining spread among many people.

Since the end of May 2022, Monero has paid a "tail emission," a permanent minimum block reward of 0.6 XMR. Unlike Bitcoin, the supply never stops growing, which the project says keeps miners paid to secure the network.

Why have exchanges delisted Monero?

Binance removed Monero on February 20, 2024, saying only that assets must meet its standards. Kraken stopped Monero trading for European Economic Area customers on October 31, 2024, citing EU rules that bar providers from handling privacy-focused tokens. Earlier, exchanges in South Korea and Australia dropped it under regulatory pressure. Holding Monero remains legal in many countries, but buying it through regulated platforms has become harder.

Rules differ by country and change often. Check the regulator or a qualified professional for your own situation.