Monero transaction activity remained above pre-2022 levels through 2024 and 2025, according to TRM Labs’ February 13, 2026 analysis. The firm described persistent use despite restrictions at major exchanges.
What the darknet figure measures
TRM said 48% of newly launched darknet markets in 2025 supported only Monero. That denominator is newly launched markets in its research, not all darknet markets, transactions or Monero holders.
The firm also said Bitcoin remained the dominant asset for actual ransomware payments, even when attackers preferred Monero. These observations concern identified illicit activity and do not establish that all privacy-coin use is criminal.
Network behavior and cryptography are different questions
The analysis reported non-standard behavior among roughly 14–15% of observed reachable network peers. It said this could affect assumptions about transaction propagation, while distinguishing those observations from a failure of Monero’s on-chain cryptography.
Transaction counts alone cannot prove how much activity exchange restrictions prevented. They also do not measure the number of distinct people using the network. Those limits matter when interpreting the report’s resilience claim.
For related concepts, see wallets, keys and custody.
Editor’s note: The statistical denominators and research limits are clarified. The article no longer treats stable transaction counts as proof that delistings had no effect.