Privacy-Focused Crypto Monero Surges 14% As Holders Mobilize Bank Run To Test Crypto Exchange Reserves

A coordinated effort that saw users withdraw their Monero XMR/USD from exchange wallets has been dubbed the “Monerun.”

What Happened: Monero holders orchestrated a bank run to test cryptocurrency exchanges' reserves on Monday, which also marked the digital coin's eighth anniversary.

The idea was first mooted by Reddit user “bawdyanarchist” on the coin’s dedicated subreddit.

“April 18th. We're withdrawing XMR from exchanges. Any exchange that hasn't disabled withdraws (which many of them have already), we're pulling our funds,” the user said in a post last week.

“Monero's obfuscated ledger has enabled a number of exchanges to misrepresent their reserves, and sell XMR that they don't actually have.”

See Also: HOW TO BUY MONERO (XMR)

Unlike Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD, the privacy-focused Monero anonymizes transactions to a greater degree and makes it difficult to ascertain whether crypto exchanges hold the XMR reserves they claim.

“The Monero community has come to a loose consensus that many exchanges don't actually hold all of the Monero which customers have purchased,” bawdyanarchist said on Reddit.

“The exchange just sold a promise, not a real asset.”

If the Reddit hypothesis is true, the planned bank run would likely force exchanges to buy XMR to fund simultaneous user withdrawals.

XMR surged as much as 15% on Monday, even as Bitcoin and Ethereum were down more than 4%.

Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, XMR hit an intra-day high of $267.94. At press time, the coin was trading at $263 with a trading volume of $438 million.