Monero (XMR) Gains Attention, Zcash (ZEC) Faces Wild Swings, and More: Bits Recap October 23

Here's everything most interesting surrounding XMR, ZEC, and BTC. The popular privacy coin XMR has taken center stage lately after its price surged to an eight-month high. Its biggest rival, ZEC, also posted a substantial uptick, but bears stopped the rally, and the asset remains in the red on a weekly basis. For its part, BTC slipped 1% within the same period, yet the recent whale activity suggests the price may soon head north. XMR’s Pump The token registered a double-digit price increase yesterday (October 22), surpassing $650 for the first time since January. A potential catalyst for the rally was the announcement that GUI v0.18.5.4 ‘Fluorine Fermi’ has been released. Monero’s team explained that this minor upgrade reopens testnet and stagenet wallets and includes bug fixes. Some analysts expected XMR to continue its upward trajectory, with X users Sweep and Alaoui Capital predicting an explosion to a new all-time high of $1,000. Contrary to their projections, though, the privacy coin headed south and is currently worth $605 (per CoinGecko). In fact, Dr Profit recently warned that XMR’s open interest has hit a historic high (a claim Santiment rejected) and noted that the last t...