Monero Weekly Roundup - Issue #1

FCMP++ & CARROT Alpha Stressnet v1.6 Released

Version v1.6 of the FCMP++ & CARROT alpha stressnet was released this week, delivering internal improvements and stability refinements ahead of the planned beta stressnet phase. FCMP++ (Full-Chain Membership Proofs) is Monero's most significant upcoming protocol upgrade, replacing the current ring signature system — which limits each spend to an anonymity set of 16 outputs — with membership proofs spanning the entire Monero blockchain, pushing the effective anonymity set to over 100 million outputs. CARROT is a complementary addressing protocol upgrade bringing new security, privacy, and usability features while maintaining backward compatibility with existing addresses. A mainnet hard fork activating both upgrades is currently targeted for mid-2026, and the development team continues to encourage community participation in stressnet testing via the stressnet Matrix room.

Monerujo Pre-Beta v1.15.8 Launches with Major UX Improvements

Monerujo released a public pre-beta of version v1.15.8 this week, featuring significant UX improvements aimed at making the Android wallet more accessible to everyday users. The pre-beta is available at soon.monerujo.app and is expected to reach the official beta channel in the coming weeks. The release reflects continued investment in mobile wallet usability — a key lever for broader Monero adoption among non-technical users.

Skylight Wallet v1.0.7 Released by MAGIC Grants

MAGIC Grants published Skylight Wallet v1.0.7 this week, delivering bug fixes and general improvements. Skylight is a MAGIC Grants-funded wallet initiative contributing to the broader Monero wallet ecosystem and expanding the range of options available to users.

Cuprate Meeting Scheduled

The next Cuprate development meeting has been scheduled for February 17, 2026 at 1800 UTC in the Cuprate Matrix room and IRC-Libera #cuprate channel. Cuprate — the community-developed Rust-based alternative Monero node implementation — continues to advance toward feature parity with the reference C++ node, a meaningful step toward reducing the network's single-implementation risk.

Network hashrate stood at approximately 5.39 GH/s as of February 12, reflecting a modest 4.49% dip over 24 hours but remaining consistent with recent months' baselines, per CypherGoat's weekly network statistics. The block reward held steady at 0.6000 + 0.01377 XMR (~$200.89 at time of reporting), annual inflation remained at 0.85% in line with Monero's tail emission model, and block height reached 3,608,662 during the week. Live hashrate data is available via MiningPoolStats and monero.how.

P2Pool mining continued to draw community interest this week, with a community-contributed guide on installing Monero, P2Pool, and XMRig on Linux highlighted as a useful resource for new miners. P2Pool's share of total network hashrate continues its gradual upward trend, reflecting the community's ongoing preference for decentralized, trust-minimized mining over custodial pools.

Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime Report: Monero Named in CSAM Laundering Flows

The Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime Report published this week included findings that CSAM and human trafficking networks are increasingly routing proceeds through Monero and KYC-free instant exchangers after initially collecting payments on transparent blockchains. The report documented one identified CSAM operation that used over 5,800 cryptocurrency addresses to process more than $530,000 since mid-2022. Chainalysis analyst Tom McLouth told Decrypt that "crypto isn't enabling the crime — crypto is allowing us to expose it," noting that blockchain transparency on mainstream chains is precisely what made these operations traceable in the first place. The Monero community has consistently argued that mandatory privacy protects the vast majority of legitimate users, and that any sufficiently private financial tool will attract some illicit use — the same argument applied to cash for centuries.

Bloomberg Feature on Privacy Coins Generates Broad Discussion

Bloomberg published a feature on February 13 titled "Darknet Demand for Monero (XMR) Rises, Stumping Crime Fighters", profiling Monero's role in both privacy-conscious legitimate use and illicit darknet activity. The piece generated significant discussion across r/Monero and broader crypto communities, with many advocates noting the article's framing conflates financial privacy with criminality — a recurring challenge in mainstream media coverage of the project.

TRM Labs 2026 Report: Nearly Half of New Darknet Markets Now XMR-Only

Alongside the Chainalysis report, TRM Labs published its own 2026 Crypto Crime Report this week, independently finding that nearly half of newly launched darknet marketplaces in 2025 now support Monero exclusively — a trend most pronounced in Western markets where law enforcement and blockchain analytics pressure is highest. The report frames the migration to Monero-only markets as a direct response to improved tracing capabilities on transparent chains. Both reports are expected to inform regulatory discussions across the EU and U.S. regarding privacy coin oversight in the months ahead.

The simultaneous release of two major institutional crypto crime reports naming Monero is significant from a regulatory signalling perspective. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and allied digital rights organizations continue to argue that restrictions on privacy-preserving technology represent disproportionate responses that harm the overwhelming majority of legitimate users. Community members are encouraged to track public comment periods on relevant regulatory proposals and engage with policymakers through established advocacy channels.

MoneroTopia 2026 Conference Held in Mexico City

MoneroTopia 2026 took place February 12–15 in Mexico City, Mexico. @monero announced on X that the four-day schedule featured opening talks on the importance of untraceable digital cash followed by a "Monero Marathon" technical day packed with developer and researcher presentations. The conference brought together developers, privacy advocates, miners, and community members from across the global Monero ecosystem, with Latin America representing a key growth market for privacy-focused cryptocurrency. Full talk recordings are expected to be published in the coming weeks.

Several active proposals are currently open on the Monero Community Crowdfunding System (CCS), including funding requests for hinto-janai's continued full-time development work, an open-source Monero browser extension wallet, a CCS frontend redesign and backend upgrade, a proposal to build a community media platform for Monero news, and homomorphic DEX infrastructure aimed at reducing cross-domain metadata correlation attacks. Community members are encouraged to review and comment on open proposals.

A new service, Quantum Proxies, launched this week offering pay-as-you-go residential, datacenter, and mobile proxies with Monero payment support — an example of the growing infrastructure ecosystem accepting XMR as a native payment method. MoneroKon 2027 planning also officially kicked off, with a community meeting scheduled for February 21, 2026 at 1700 UTC in the #monerokon Matrix channel.

@monero's MoneroTopia 2026 announcement and updates dominated community engagement on X throughout the week, with attendees sharing talk highlights and networking moments from Mexico City. The official account's coverage of the conference served as a real-time hub for community sentiment during what was one of the most active in-person Monero gatherings of the year.

The CypherGoat "This Week in Monero" Issue #23, published February 12 by recanman, provided a thorough digest covering the stressnet v1.6 release, Monerujo pre-beta, full network statistics, and a featured study resource — a MoneroTalk video discussion on the privacy coin landscape featuring Diego Salazar. CypherGoat's weekly newsletter is a reliable companion resource and is recommended reading alongside this roundup.

The Bloomberg privacy coin feature sparked sustained discussion on r/Monero, with community members debating how best to respond constructively to mainstream narratives that focus on illicit use while underrepresenting Monero's legitimate adoption. The recurring theme in responses was the need for better public-facing educational content — including the kind of resources monero.how aims to produce.

Educational content explaining FCMP++ for non-technical audiences continued to circulate across Monero community channels this week, including material from the Monero Space YouTube channel. As the upgrade approaches beta testing, community-produced explainers are proving essential for keeping the broader user base informed about why the protocol change matters and what to expect during the transition.

XMR experienced notable downward price pressure during the February 9–15 period, declining from the $400 range to trade near $320 by February 15, according to CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko. The 7-day performance stood at approximately -7.64% as of February 12, per CypherGoat's market data. Market capitalization stood at approximately $6.13 billion with a circulating supply of 18,712,360 XMR. Technical indicators showed a neutral RSI(14) of 43.9, a bearish MACD signal, and price positioned below the 20-EMA ($427) with support identified near $280. The decline occurred alongside broader altcoin weakness rather than any Monero-specific catalyst.

On-chain activity remained steady with the suggested transaction fee holding at 20 piconero per byte. Monero's transaction-to-Bitcoin ratio stood at 7.1% — a metric the community monitors as an indicator of real-world usage independent of price movements. Full on-chain data is available via XMRChain and Monero Blocks Explorer. The block reward of 0.6 XMR per block (plus transaction fees) continues Monero's tail emission model, ensuring perpetual miner incentives beyond the initial emission curve.

A detailed public analysis of FCMP++ published this week offered one of the more thorough explanations available of the upgrade's cryptographic foundations, covering its use of Generalized Bulletproofs, forward secrecy mechanisms, and the path toward post-quantum resistance. The piece noted that the FCMP++ design paper (v0.5.2) was last updated January 8, 2026 by the Monero Research Lab, and confirmed the backward compatibility guarantee: existing 95-character Monero addresses remain valid through and after the upgrade, requiring no user action. For those seeking a deeper understanding of what FCMP++ actually does, the analysis is a recommended read.

The dual release of the Chainalysis and TRM Labs 2026 Crypto Crime Reports produced the most significant body of public research touching on Monero in months. Taken together, the reports document Monero's growing role in privacy-sensitive darknet operations — a trend driven directly by the improving effectiveness of blockchain analytics on transparent chains. These reports will serve as reference documents in upcoming regulatory discussions; community researchers and advocates should be prepared to engage with their findings in public policy contexts.