Apart from Bitcoin, Monero also peaked in 2020. XMR's price today is the highest in more than two years, since September 2018.
The all-time maximum was reached on January 9, 2018, when, during a speculative bubble, the price was at $ 542, followed by a sharp drop, which in August of the same year led to a value well below $ 100.
After a very short boom that saw Monero surpassing $ 137 again in early September 2018, it has never reached that level since. By December of that year, it had dropped below $ 50, and by mid-March 2020, it had declined to $ 32. Since then, however, the price of Monero has risen substantially, returning to about $ 100 by mid-August, and today again surpassed the $138 level.
Thus, today's XMR value is not only the highest in the last two years but is also at the same level as during a short peak in early September 2018.
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Social engagement around the Monero topic has grown 92.2% in recent days. Google searches are also on the rise, likely in response to the many prospects for increasing the traceability of money, in particular, due to the hype around Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).
One of the main characteristics of the CBDC is the complete traceability of all transactions since it will be necessary to identify oneself to use them, and since all transactions will be recorded in a centralized ledger controlled by the central bank itself. In other words, CBDCs will not be anonymous at all and will allow every transaction to be fully tracked. Central banks will be able to easily track the identity of each sender and each recipient of transactions.
In any case, the rise in the value of Monero over the past few months appears to be higher than the activity on social media and Google searches, which probably indicates financial or speculative interest in XMR rather than its actual use as a cryptocurrency. With a high level of confidentiality. It is possible that, as is often the case, markets are trying to get ahead of their time.