Is It Monero's Turn?
Plus, what does Ethereum need to survive for decades?
Denis Omelchenko & Olivia Capozzalo
January 12, 2026
Happy Monday, Defiers!
Today’s big story:
- After a blockbuster 2025 for Zcash, fellow privacy coin Monero rallied to beat its 2018 all-time high less than two weeks into the new year
In other news:
- Vitalik calls for “walkaway test” for Ethereum
- Memecoins lose 60% in a year
- Truebit suffers $26M exploit
The Defiant’s 2025 in review:
- How Digital Asset Treasuries Went Mainstream in 2025
- RWAs Became Wall Street’s Gateway to Crypto in 2025
- Prediction Markets Expand from DeFi Niche to Global News Sources
- Stablecoins Became Crypto’s First Mainstream Use Case in 2025
- Looking Ahead: The Biggest Names in Crypto Predict New Bitcoin Highs and a Tokenization Boom in 2026
Read more below! But first, please give our sponsors some love; they make this newsletter possible.
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Our final ecosystem episode with Avalanche explores how blockchain is finally breaking into mainstream consumer use through fan-driven economies. The episode opens with a real-world ticketing failure at the Champions League final, exposing deeper flaws in today’s ticketing and loyalty systems, opaque infrastructure, counterfeit risk, and zero recourse for fans.
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We’re back! Here’s what you need to know in web3 today
📈 Markets in the Past 24 Hours
| TICKER | VALUE | 24H | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Bitcoin | $91,632 | 0.93 % |
 | Ethereum | $3,125.25 | 0.34 % |
 | XRP | $2.09 | 0.32 % |
 | BNB | $903.99 | -0.39 % |
 | Solana | $142.44 | 2.90 % |
Today’s Big Story
Monero Breaks 2018 Record with Sharp New Year Rally
Monero, the largest privacy-focused cryptocurrency, which is often sidelined by centralized exchanges over its design, suddenly hit a new all-time high, less than two weeks into 2026.
Over the weekend, the price of XMR jumped more than 30%, trading above $570 with a market capitalization topping $10.5 billion at press time. The move pushed the privacy coin past its previous record of $542, set during the 2018 bull run.
XMR price chart. Source: CoinGecko
For now, what’s driving the move and how long the momentum will last aren’t entirely clear. Unlike Zcash, Monero doesn’t have a digital asset treasury (DAT) company providing steady buying pressure. That said, Zcash didn’t have one either until recently, and its extended rally — which made it 2025’s top performing large-cap — started about a month and a half before the Winklevoss-backed firm Cypherpunk announced it was accumulating the asset.
XMR repeatedly tried to follow broader market momentum throughout 2025 but failed to sustain any major breakouts, partly due to repeated hostile attempts to reorganize the network. Last year, for example, it peaked around $417, still below its May 2021 high of $479. This year, the token has already set a new all-time high above $596.
Monero’s weekend rally has continued into Monday. Over the past 24 hours, XMR emerged as the top gainer among the 100 largest crypto assets, per data from CoinGecko. XMR is up more than 13% today, outperforming Zcash, which was the third-biggest gainer among large-caps, up 4%.
The timing looks favorable for Monero, especially as its main rival faces turbulence. As The Defiant reported earlier, Zcash dropped as much as 20% in a day last week after the entire team at Electric Coin Company, the company behind the blockchain’s development, left to form a new company following a governance dispute.
Denis, staff reporter at The Defiant
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🎬WATCH
How Stablecoins Are Rewiring Global Payments | Borderless CPO Alex Garn
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Chris Storaker sits down with Alex Garn, chief product officer at Borderless, to unpack how stablecoins are quietly transforming cross-border payments — and what it actually takes to move money at scale across jurisdictions.
We explore why stablecoins are moving beyond trading and DeFi collateral into real-world enterprise payments, where they already outperform legacy rails on settlement speed, transparency, and custody — especially across emerging market corridors like Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Top News Since Friday
- Buterin Calls for Ethereum Updates to Ensure Blockchain Outlasts Its Developers Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says the network should eventually become more independent, arguing that the blockchain should remain usable and resilient even without constant updates. Why it matters: One of the technical priorities Buterin outlined is quantum-resistant cryptography, arguing it shouldn’t be delayed to prioritize other efficiencies.
- Memecoin Market Cratered More Than 60% in 2025: Report The global memecoin market lost more than 60% of its value in 2025, even as the broader crypto market hit new highs, according to a new report from analysis platform BestBrokers. Why it matters: The data suggests that the memecoin surge was fueled mainly by short-term trading.
- Truebit Hack Wipes Out TRU in First Major Exploit of 2026Blockchain security firms CertiK and PeckShield confirmed the attacker drained about 8,500 ETH, worth roughly $26.4 million, from a smart contract linked to blockchain verification protocol Truebit.Why it matters: The attack marked the first major crypto hack of 2026.
Trending on The Defiant
- A16z Crypto Shares Three Crypto Predictions for 2026
- Memecoin Market Cratered More Than 60% in 2025: Report
- Crypto Markets Edge Lower After US Jobs Miss Expectations
- Polygon Leads Altcoin Surge With 15% Rally
- Truebit Hack Wipes Out TRU in First Major Exploit of 2026
- Optimism Foundation Proposes Using 50% of Revenue for Buybacks
That’s it for today — if you enjoyed this newsletter, tell your friends! https://thedefiant.io/subscribe
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