The crypto market has just witnessed an unexpected volatility as Monero (XMR) – the famous anonymous coin – surged over 40% in just 24 hours, reaching its highest peak since 2021. The cause is believed to be related to a Bitcoin theft worth over 330 million USD that is shaking the community.


Monero (XMR) peaks after 3 years, unprecedented trading explosion


On April 28, the price #XMR unexpectedly surged, reaching over 320 USD – the highest level since May 2021 – before slightly adjusting to around 262 USD. The trading volume of XMR also recorded an explosion, from an average of 50 million USD/7 days to over 220 million USD in just one day.


This explosive growth has spilled over to other anonymous coins like Zcash (ZEC) and Dash (DASH), causing them to also benefit from the upward wave.


However, what is notable is that there was no internal motivation or positive news recorded about Monero during this time, raising significant doubts within the crypto community.


The mystery of 330 million USD Bitcoin theft: Where did the money flow?


According to the famous on-chain detective ZachXBT, on April 27, 2025, an unusual transaction with an enormous volume of 3,520 $BTC (equivalent to about 330.7 million USD) was detected. This Bitcoin was transferred from the victim's wallet to an address coded "bc1qcry...vz55g".


Immediately after, the entire amount of stolen Bitcoin was:



  • Divide into smaller pieces.



  • Wash through at least 6 different exchanges.



  • Swap to Monero (XMR) – a coin famous for its maximum anonymity, allowing the concealment of sender, receiver, transaction amount, and the entire transaction history.



It was the extremely large demand for XMR in a short period that caused a liquidity shock, driving the price and trading volume of XMR to surge in just a few hours.


The tracing is becoming increasingly difficult


At this moment, the identity of the victim and the hacker behind this Bitcoin theft has not yet been identified. The entire amount of Bitcoin was quickly distributed across various addresses, making the hunt more difficult.


In particular, the hacker's conversion of a large amount of Bitcoin to XMR has brought the investigation process to a standstill. Monero, with its comprehensive anonymity feature, has been criticized multiple times for becoming a popular tool in money laundering or illegal financing.


For these reasons, since the beginning of 2024, many major exchanges like Binance have delisted XMR to comply with legal requirements from various countries to control anonymous transactions.


Will the scenario of August 2024 repeat?


Previously, in August 2024, there was another hack when a Bitcoin whale was seized of 238 million USD. However, just a month later, authorities tracked down the perpetrator and recovered the assets.


However, this case seems much more complicated, as the hacker used Monero to hide traces, making it almost impossible to follow the money trail with traditional investigation methods.


Crypto market perspective


The incident shows that there are still many security vulnerabilities in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. At the same time, it also highlights the dual role of privacy coins like XMR: protecting user privacy while also being exploited in illegal activities.


For investors, this event raises questions about the future of anonymous coins as they face increasing legal pressure, especially in the context of many countries tightening control over crypto trading. #anhbacong