Monero was launched in April 2014. Its name comes from Esperanto and as you can see from our infographic it’s the combination of three words MON - money, ER- smallest part and, O - a thing or a noun. Put together MON-ER-O can be translated as “a noun that describes the smallest part of the money” or coin. 

Monero is developed with privacy and anonymity as the main characteristics. This Crypto has made several big changes since its launching. Nearly all improvements have provided more security or privacy, or they have facilitated use. For Monero privacy and security comes first, ease of use and efficiency second.

It uses Ring Confidential Transactions, a form of BTC Mixing services where transactions are signed by a group of randomly chosen Monero owners with the same amount of XMR coins. The result of the transaction is 100% anonymity. 

With more privacy comes the possibility of illegal usage. Monero has faced criticism for its use in illegal activities, such as drug trades on the dark and deep web, due to the anonymity it provides. This unfortunate association has led some to refer to it as the ‘currency of criminals’.

Growth Trend Of Monero

For the first two years after Monero was founded, it didn’t grow significantly. But this changed in 2016 when Alphabay, which is a darknet market, began accepting Monero due to the anonymity of it’s users. This is thought to have driven the huge growth in price between August and September 2016, which saw gains of around 2700%.

This growth continued into 2017 and another major price spike occurred in August, when Bithumb added Monero trading to its exchange, making it more accessible to investors. More media hype drove the price higher towards the end of 2017 and it hit its peak in January 2018, when its value reached $494.

As you can see from our infographic, the lowest price levels were recorded in January of 2015. And although it's not on its highest levels at the moment of writing this text, back in May this crypto marked its all-time high of $517.60.