Monero jumps 8.9% as THORChain 3.20 unlocks native XMR swaps

THORChain's 3.20 upgrade on Aug 25 gave Monero holders a non-custodial route to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins, sending XMR up 8.9%.

Monero rose 8.9% to about $469 after THORChain's 3.20 upgrade enabled native XMR swaps against Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins on Aug 25, giving privacy-coin holders a route around centralized exchange restrictions.

"This is a monumental win for XMR, giving users native, non-custodial swaps with no KYC and no custodial bridges," @Lucky_m_X, a Monero-focused account on X, said.

The upgrade lets users trade XMR directly for major assets without wrapped tokens or intermediaries, a direct answer to the delistings that stripped Monero from Binance, Kraken, and OKX. XMR's market cap sits at $8.4 billion, ranking 14th, according to CoinMarketCap. The token broke above a cup-and-handle neckline at $370, with RSI holding above 60 and all four daily EMAs clustered in bullish order beneath the price. A whale placed a leveraged position with take-profit orders between $475 and $516.

The upgrade recreates a deep, censorship-resistant path between XMR and large-cap assets, pulling in both privacy-focused users and arbitrage traders. Next resistance sits near $478, with the January high near $798 as the longer-term target. The move also landed alongside Monero's Cuprate node release, a full Rust rewrite that syncs the entire blockchain in under an hour.

The integration arrives as privacy coins face mounting regulatory pressure. Monero's privacy-by-default design led to delistings on Binance and OKX, contrasting with Zcash's opt-in privacy, which Grayscale recently wrapped into a spot ETF filing. High-profile incidents have also kept XMR in the spotlight: a Cosmos EVM exploit report noted the attacker's wallet was funded through Monero, and GTA 6 leakers demanded 400 XMR, roughly $165,000.

The integration could lift THORChain's total value locked and trading volume as privacy-focused capital migrates on-chain. It also heightens regulatory scrutiny on cross-chain DEX protocols that bypass exchange compliance measures for privacy tokens, a dynamic that may shape how regulators treat THORChain and similar infrastructure.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.