- The US IRS offers $500,000 for anyone who breaks Monero’s privacy robustness.
- CipherTrace has developed a tool that can trace Monero transactions.
- Monero is on the verge of a breakdown to $75, especially if the wedge pattern support is broken.
It is obvious why governments around the world do not have a liking for privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies. Governments and their institutions do not like to be in the dark. However, anonymous coins such as Monero (XMR) and Zcash have been designed to protect their identities. Regulators and government institutions argue that privacy and anonymity oriented digital currencies can support criminal activities such as money laundering and terrorism funding.
Subsequently, the ardent user of coins like Monero argues that “privacy guarantees are designed to benefit legitimate users who do not want their financial details made public,” according to the Zerocash whitepaper. The paper adds that “anonymous cryptocurrencies barely affects the status quo for criminal users, who already have strong incentives to hide their activity, while it provides notable benefits to legitimate users.”
Can Monero’s privacy features be compromised?
Monero has been a topic for discussion in the past week after the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) asked the public to help break its privacy features. The precise instruction was to “investigative resources for tracing transactions involving privacy cryptocurrency coins such as Monero, Layer 2 network protocol transactions such as Lightning Labs, or other off-chain transactions that provide privacy to illicit actors.”
While this is not an easy task, the IRI hopes that once it has been accomplished, its agents will have the ability to trace transactions, predict inputs and outputs of funds, and reveal the identity of the senders and receivers within the network. Intriguingly, a colossal reward amounting to $500,000 has been offered to anyone who breaks Monero’s renowned privacy robustness.
At the moment, Cipher Trace made a recent announcement that its team has finalized the development of a tool that can be used to trace Monero. The tool was developed following a request from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). According to CipherTrace, this tool is not against Monero; in fact, it could help the digital asset gain listing on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Note that Monero’s robust signature privacy model has, for a long time, allowed users to anonymously send and receive transactions without a trace by creating a onetime address for every transaction. Unfortunately, the same features have cost it listings on various exchanges such as BitBay, and CoinCheck.
Indeed, sooner or later, there will be a success story for the IRS. However, if Monero loses even an inch of its privacy attractiveness, the storm that would blow through the network and token value would be far worse than the drama of embattled SushiSwap.
Monero flashing a destructive sell signal
Monero has been on the radar for its sort-after privacy features being compromised. The negative sentiments keep reverberating unwanted energy throughout the community and the cryptocurrency industry. From highs above $105 in August, Monero has at one point retreated to $75.
At the time of writing, Monero is trading at $88, following another reversal from $92. The Relative Strength Index points towards a potential breakdown, especially if the midline support at 50 is broken. Moreover, the rising wedge pattern emphasizes the bearish grip further. If the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) caves in, Monero will spiral to the next tentative support at the 100-day SMA ($80). The breakdown from the rising wedge aims for the $75 support level amid the rising concerns of law enforcement interference.
XMR/USD daily chart
Looking at the other side of the picture
The hourly range shows Monero holding above the 50 SMA. If XMR/USD bulls keep the price above this level, there is a chance a bullish reversal would come into the picture, invalidating the bearish case to $75.
XMR/USD hourly chart
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Note that Monero has reversed upwards every time the 50 SMA support has been protected in September. For now, support above $88 is key to ensuring that Monero does not fall into the bottomless pit.