The private altcoin Monero (XMR) has been rising in price since mid-August. Over the past 24 hours, the rate of the cryptocurrency has increased by another 16%. The capitalization of XMR on Monday, August 23, reached $ 5.9 billion.
The coin climbed to 28th place in the ranking of the largest digital currencies.
The strengthening has been observed since August 17, after the developers launched XMR-BTC atomic swaps, which are now available on the mainnet. With this tool, users will be able to confidentially exchange cryptocurrencies between different blockchains, the Monero team said in a statement.
The operation is carried out using smart contracts. At the same time, the use of atomic swaps does not require the involvement of a third party, for example, an exchange. It was this update that created the conditions for both a surge in network activity and an increase in the value of XMR.
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Messari analysts are also paying attention to the improvement in cryptocurrency fundamentals.
Over the past month, the average daily number of transactions on the Monero network has increased markedly. If in June and July, users made from 14,000 to 20,000 transactions per day, then in August, this figure periodically jumped to 30,000 transactions and more.
In parallel, the Monero volatility index is decreasing. Now it is 0.67%, while in June, this indicator exceeded 2.4%.
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The researchers noticed that if the volatility of the XMR rises, then the coin's value falls. If the opposite dynamics are observed (a reduction in the range of price fluctuations), then the price of the altcoin will gradually increase.