Transactions of monero (XMR) has increased by more than 40% in the course of the last year, in a growth that could be linked with a greater use of cryptocurrencies in the markets of the web or dark darknet.
According to the statistics of Coin Metrics, the number of transactions of monero went from 7.308 to 6th July, 2019, to 10,630 may be taken on the 5th of July 2020. This increase has been constant in the course of the last 12 months, with a maximum of 14.073 transactions recorded on July 2 of this year (a growth of almost 100%).
This is a sustained trend in the last two years, according to the comments in the subreddit official Monero, where the team XMR points out that this advance would indicate a steady increase in the use of monero for commercial transactions. A fact which qualify as “particularly significant”, to occur during a period in which the market oscillates between falling and stable prices.
In this respect, the data of bitinfocharts.com show the growth of the transactions from the creation of Monero, in 2014. In the graph of transactions is observed the steady increase of transactions in the last few years. The number of operations has been doubling year after year, on all from 2016, with a significant rise in 2019.
The historical maximum is recorded in may of 2019, when the number of transactions was 15.325, then you have started this year with 4.732 transactions. To January 2020, the amount of transactions exceeded 8,000.
The history of Monero shows a sustained growth in the number of transactions from 2014. Source: bitinfocharts.com
The data on the increase of the transactions of XMR, a criptomoneda that is characterized by privacy, which could be extrapolated with the results of several reports that report on the increase of transactions with cryptocurrencies in the markets of the web dark from 2019.
Breaking News published in January the results of an investigation of Chainalysis on the economic activity in the darknet last year. The analysts concluded that the transaction with cryptocurrencies in those markets rose from 0,4% in 2018, 0,8% in 2019.
A similar conclusion reached by a study conducted in may of 2020 by Crystal Blockchain Analytics. The analysis platform, created by the Group Bitfury, noted that the total value of BTC mobilized through the web dark has increased by 65% in the past 12 months, and 340% in the past 36 months.
However, it also identified a decrease in the amount of BTC used in the markets of the darknet, a trend that correlates with an increase in the use of the altcoins on the part of the operators of the web dark.
On this topic, Breaking News reported in October 2019 a report on The Block Research that indicated that bitcoin, monero and litecoin are the cryptocurrencies used more and more by the markets of the web dark.
The advancement of Monero in the web dark
For the team of Crystal Blockchain Analytics, as countries apply more strict regulations and the exchange houses used more verification processes, the operators of the markets in the shadow forced to turn to cryptocurrencies less regulated.
Monero emerge as one of the main options for these markets, possess a privacy-enhanced, and offer users a level of anonymity that helps to hide the origin of the transaction, in addition to being more economic.
An example of the increase in the use of monero on markets dark is the recent update of an entry in the news website of the armed group, ISIS, known as Islamic State. The publication notes that at the time of accepting donations would have gone from bitcoin to monero.
In its update, the armed group explains that the change is due to the fact that monero is “safe and your steps you cannot trace the full chain of blocks”.
They add that the criptomoneda promotes total anonymity between donors, something that no one can guarantee that with bitcoin. This fact was recognized by the European Police Office (Europol), who have affirmed in several seminars that the use of the Tor browser, in conjunction with monero, has made impossible the task of tracing the funds as actors, intellectuals of crimes.
A decision similar to that of ISIS took the operators of the ransonware Sodinokibi, who reported last April, his preference for monero -also as a way of avoiding the tracking of transactions-. They even make a surcharge of 10% to those who pay the ransom with bitcoin. Due to this, the security expert, Lawrence Abrams, predicted at that time that monero could become the payment method of choice of the groups that attacked with ransomware.