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By Omkar Godbole|Edited by Parikshit Mishra
Updated May 26, 2025, 10:22 a.m. Published May 26, 2025, 10:10 a.m.
- Monero (XMR) has surpassed litecoin (LTC) and toncoin (TON) to become one of the top 25 digital assets by market value, with a market capitalization exceeding $7.5 billion.
- Monero’s privacy features make it popular among criminals, with reports of its use in fundraising by groups linked to the Islamic State.
- The cryptocurrency’s price has more than doubled this year.
Privacy-focused cryptocurrency monero
has overtaken litecoin
and toncoin
to rank among the top 25 digital assets by market value.
The so-called flippening is characterized by XMR’s market capitalization topping $7.5 billion, racing ahead of TON’s $7.48 billion and LTC’s $7.35 billion, according to data source Coingecko.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Monero (XMR) is a decentralized, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency with privacy-enhancing technologies to obscure transaction details. That makes traditional financial tracking and intercepting methods largely obsolete, which explains why criminals love cryptocurrency.
Earlier this year, a media outlet linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) Pakistan Province reportedly published a poster calling for contributions of “jihad with wealth” and sought donations in monero.
Still, prices for the controversial coin have risen over 100% to above $400 this year, hitting levels last seen in early 2021, CoinDesk data show. The rally has been supposedly led by optimism about the impending privacy upgrade and rumors of re-listing by major exchanges, including the U.S.-listed Coinbase.
Meanwhile, litecoin (LTC), considered silver to bitcoin’s gold, has dropped 6% this year to trade below $100. Toncoin, which is deeply integrated into the social messaging app Telegram’s economy, has dropped 25% this year.
Omkar Godbole is a Co-Managing Editor on CoinDesk’s Markets team based in Mumbai, holds a masters degree in Finance and a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) member. Omkar previously worked at FXStreet, writing research on currency markets and as fundamental analyst at currency and commodities desk at Mumbai-based brokerage houses. Omkar holds small amounts of bitcoin, ether, BitTorrent, tron and dot.
