Monero price is moving sideways after the latest minutes by the Federal Open Market Commission (FOMC). The XMR coin is trading at $177.90, which is about 35% above its lowest level this year.
Privacy coins in focus
Monero is a leading cryptocurrency that was built to solve some of the biggest challenges in Bitcoin’s ecosystem. The network is relatively faster than Bitcoin and the cost of transactions is significantly lower.
Monero sets itself apart when it comes to its privacy credentials. The platform uses advanced encryption processes that make it almost impossible to follow its transactions.
The importance of these measures have been seen in the past few months. For example, last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) managed to track ransom payments that were offered after the Colonial Pipeline hack.
And this year, the FBI managed to use Bitcoin’s vulnerability to track Bitcoins that were stolen during the Bitfinex hack in 2016.
Meanwhile, in Canada, the government has placed sanctions on 78 Bitcoin wallets as it attempts to crack down on the ongoing anti-vaccine mandates protests.
Therefore, after seeing these vulnerabilities, there is a likelihood that many people will embrace Monero’s platform, which has high marks when it comes to privacy. The coin is so private such that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) paid two companies $600k to try and get into the network.
Meanwhile, the XMR price has struggled lately after worries grow about MineXMR, a mining pool that controls about 44% of the network’s hash rate. Therefore, the concern is that the pool will get to 50% soon. If this happens, there is a likelihood that the pool will be able to carry out a 51% attack.
Another reason why the Monero price is struggling is that the Fed has hinted that it will deliver at least three rate hikes this year.
Monero price prediction
The daily chart shows that the XMR price has been in a tight range recently. It is trading at $178, which is an important resistance level. As you can see below, the coin struggled to move below this price several times in 2021.
Therefore, there is a likelihood that Monero has formed a break and retest pattern, which is usually a bearish sign.
If this happens, the next key level to watch will be at $134, which was the lowest level this year.