Top 4 Monero Price Predictions for 2018

Monero is an alternative cryptocurrency that has taken the world by storm over the last few years, growing from almost nothing to become one of the major players in the market. The great promise that it offers is nothing short of the holy grail of cryptocurrency: a fully-verifiable public ledger that is also completely private and anonymous. While it has yet to unseat Bitcoin or Ethereum as the top cryptocurrency today, it is increasingly becoming more and more popular among privacy-oriented people even outside the crypto community. What does 2018 have in store for this promising coin? We have put together some 2018 Monero price predictions together in this article.

What Are the Monero Price Predictions for 2018?

A Focus on Privacy

The Monero coin network promises something fairly unique in the crypto world so far: a coin whose transactions are perfectly verifiable through the blockchain that still allows for full anonymity for its users. Over the last year, there has been an increased interest in online privacy which is increasingly attracting more people to cryptocurrency in general, and Monero specifically.

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This wave of privacy activism comes at the same time as bitcoin’s credibility as a private medium of exchange is coming increasingly under scrutiny, as law enforcement agencies and tax authorities are becoming increasingly adept at discovering the identities of Bitcoin users and seizing their assets.

Monero’s unique technology uses something called ring signatures, which allow multiple transactions to be contained within the same verified segment of code, making it impossible to tell who transferred the funds to whom, while still allowing all of the transactions to be written and permanently recorded on the blockchain. That eliminates the need for middlemen or outside arbitration authorities like banks, while still providing a high level of privacy.

As privacy of online transactions only becomes more important, we expect the price of Monero to rise. On that basis, our Monero price prediction suggests steady growth over time to possibly reach as high as the $350 or $400 per coin mark, with even more possible if the entire crypto market is performing well.

Less Volatile

Throughout Monero’s price history, it has shown itself to be significantly less volatile than the market at large over the long term. Aside from a huge spike at the end of August of last year, after which the Monero price corrected slowly over a few months, it has held considerably more steady in value compared to the larger cryptocurrency market. Even more surprising for a cryptocurrency, its dollar value has also proven to be more stable than its value in Bitcoin.

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A large part of that is because it is one of the few currencies that actually sees regular use instead of fiat currency, which means that it tends to move more in step with the US dollar than the more speculative cryptocurrencies, which tend to follow bitcoin. This generally makes it a strong contender for a hedging investment in your cryptocurrency portfolio, as it is not as susceptible to a drop in bitcoin price or a general crypto downturn as some other alternative coins.

However, this carries a corollary that it is also more sensitive to real-world events than other cryptos. An economic downturn or a financial crisis is likely to raise the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as people see them as a more stable investment than fiat currency.

Monero however, would likely see a decrease in price instead, as the demand for goods and services cools. Luckily, the global economy seems to be doing well this year, which is a good thing for Monero and reinforces our Monero price prediction of around $350-400 through the end of the year. A larger economic boom can lift that further though, while an economic downturn would have the opposite effect.

Regularly Updated

Many a cryptocurrency has fallen from grace after its creators either got bored and moved on to other projects, or saw early success as a sign that it was done and needed no further refinement. These are the cryptos that get overtaken by newer and agiler competitors, who in turn often fall to complacency themselves. The Monero team is breaking that mold, as it has maintained regular upgrades and improvements over the last several years.

They have actively responded to many threats to the platform’s privacy and stability, from patching major vulnerabilities that could undermine the users’ privacy to measures designed to protect the cryptocurrency from being dominated by large mining pools backed by chipset manufacturers.

The regular updates and the continuously growing plans for the future suggest that the makers of Monero are in this for the long haul. That makes it a good longer-term investment, especially when considering our Monero price prediction of slow but steady growth. This is not likely to be a crypto that will explode overnight, making its investors rich, but rather an asset that will exhibit strong growth over the next year and for years to come.

It is also likely to avoid the major problem that faces privacy cryptocurrencies: the cracking of their algorithms. If someone were to find a way to obtain the identities of Monero users, its value would plummet. However, there is a history of Monero developers finding those vulnerabilities and quickly rolling out updates to ensure the continued privacy of Monero users. That gives the currency staying power, and supports our earlier Monero price predictions.

Criminal and Regulation Issues

Privacy is a wonderful thing, but it can also enable abuse and be a threat to the established order. Both of those things put Monero – one of the most successful privacy-oriented cryptos – right into the sights of law enforcement and government regulators. A number of concerns have been raised about the popularity of Monero with criminal enterprises, which is likely to attract further scrutiny of both the coin’s code and of the people who purchase or sell it.

And even governments in relatively crypto-friendly nations have been advancing proposals to regulate or ban either the more general category of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies in general or even Monero specifically. Even many cryptocurrency exchanges seem reluctant to list and trade in such cryptocurrencies.

While all of this negative attention has so far been limited and there are many legitimate uses for Monero as well, it does act to slow down growth among the non-crypto users who may see it as an unsafe investment or simply have trouble purchasing it due to its absence from the more newbie-friendly exchanges. If the current status quo holds, our Monero price prediction continues to be one of constant growth.

However, a ban by a large crypto market such as the United States, China, Hong Kong, or Japan could severely hurt the currency and trigger a sell-off. On the other hand, if such an effort fails or backfires, it could give the coin a slight boost in price, pushing it up 20 to 30 percent, though such a bump is likely to be followed by a slight correction.

Conclusion

Monero is a cryptocurrency that is designed to fill a very important niche in the cryptocurrency world, and it is one of the leading contenders when it comes to dominating it. Privacy is set to only become more important to both crypto users and the general public, and Monero is perfectly positioned to capitalize on that. Based on its current trends, it can easily reach back up to the $350-$400 point it held during the boom at the beginning of this year, or even more should the market continue to be favorable. What is your Monero price prediction? Let us know in the comments.