XMRMonero: history, founders and key events
From Apr 18, 2014 to today, every major rally, crash and upgrade, each with a dated, sourced price.
Open the interactive timelineLatest close in our data: $558.58 (Kraken XMR/USD daily close, 2026-10-14).
Origin story
Monero began on April 18, 2014 as BitMonero, a fork of Bytecoin using the CryptoNote protocol. The community soon took it over from its original developer and renamed it Monero, which means coin in Esperanto.
Monero hides senders with ring signatures, receivers with stealth addresses and amounts with RingCT, all by default. Since 2022 a small fixed tail emission keeps miners paid forever.
Founders: Started by a pseudonymous developer called thankful_for_today; core team includes Riccardo Spagni (fluffypony).
Source: Binance XMR/USDT daily closes 2019-03-15 to 2024-02-20; Kraken XMR/USD daily closes 2024-10-24 to 2026-10-14. Fetched Oct 14, 2026 from free public APIs. Click a dot for the event and its price on that day.
Browse by year
Key events
- Apr 18, 2014launch
BitMonero launches
A CryptoNote fork that becomes Monero goes live. - Mar 15, 2019milestone
First daily close in our data $52.10 (Binance XMR/USDT daily close, 2019-03-15)
Our sourced XMR price history begins on this day. - Nov 30, 2019upgrade
RandomX mining algorithm $54.86 (Binance XMR/USDT daily close, 2019-11-30)
Monero switches to a CPU friendly mining algorithm. - Aug 13, 2022upgrade
Bulletproofs+ and bigger rings $165.00 (Binance XMR/USDT daily close, 2022-08-13)
The ring size rises from 11 to 16. - Jan 14, 2026rally
Highest close in our data $711.53 (Kraken XMR/USD daily close, 2026-01-14)
The highest daily close for XMR in our price history. - Feb 5, 2026crash
Lowest close after the peak $291.91 (Kraken XMR/USD daily close, 2026-02-05)
The lowest XMR close in our data after its highest close.
Updated
Sources
Facts written in our own words. Last checked Oct 14, 2026.