Monero prices rocket to $438 amid $120 million onchain laundering maze

Markets Monero prices rocket to $438 amid $120 million onchain laundering maze Onchain sleuth ZachXBT traced remaining funds across exchanges, instant swap services and other blockchains. Tether later froze $72 million in USDT linked to the activity. By Shaurya Malwa | Edited by Jamie Crawley Jun 12, 2026, 11:10 a.m. 2 min read Make preferred on Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Make preferred on (Azamat E/Unsplash) Summary Show An unknown entity routed about $120 million in USDT stablecoins through a complex series of swaps this week, including large purchases of the privacy coin Monero. The Monero buy orders were big enough to push its price from roughly $330 to an intraday high near $438, highlighting how thin liquidity can amplify market moves. Onchain sleuth ZachXBT traced remaining funds across exchanges, instant swap services and other blockchains. Tether later froze $72 million in USDT linked to the activity, which bears hallmarks of money laundering. Someone routed $120 million in stablecoins through a chain of swaps this week, and a sudden jump in the Monero price made it visible. Onchain investigator ZachXBT said in a Telegram broadcast earlier Friday that an address received 120.2 million USDT on the Tron network on Thursday. USDT is the largest stablecoin, a crypto token built to hold a steady $1 value, and Tron is a blockchain often used to move it cheaply. The entity then began splitting the money up and sending it in different directions. Some of it went into Monero (XMR), a privacy coin designed to hide who sends and receives funds, which makes it hard to trace. The buy orders were large enough to move the market, and ZachXBT said these orders pushed Monero from about $330 to $420 . The token hit an intraday high near $438 and traded around $382 on Friday, up about 8% on the day. Monero does not trade in large volumes, so a single big buy can swing the price fast. The rest was scattered. ZachXBT traced more than $12 million to deposit addresses at the KuCoin exchange and about $8 million to instant swap services, which convert one coin into another quickly and often without identity checks. Another $8 million was moved off Tron onto the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks through Near Intents, a cross-chain swap tool. Spreading funds across coins, exchanges and blockchains is a common way to break the trail. Then Tether stepped in. The company can freeze USDT held at a specific address, and ZachXBT said it blacklisted an address tied to the entity holding 72 million USDT. Once frozen, those tokens cannot be moved or cashed out. It is unclear where the $120 million originally came from. But the pattern, fast movement into a privacy coin, instant swaps and cross-chain hops, is the kind used to launder illicit funds, and Tether's freeze suggests it reached the same conclusion. Privacy Tether Latest Crypto News 1 While bitcoin holds near $63,000, some data points to pain ahead for bulls 30 minutes ago 2 Metaplanet buys Siiibo Securities to accelerate bitcoin financial ecosystem plans 1 hour ago 3 There's one simple way to tell whether bitcoin has really bottomed. Right now, it hasn't. 3 hours ago 4 BlackRock files to list its bitcoin income ETF, with expected debut next week 4 hours ago 5 XRP jumps 3% above $1.14 as institutional buying meets key resistance test 4 hours ago 6 Live updates: Bitcoin traders eye rally to $75,000, Japan set to hike rate to 31-year high 4 hours ago 7 Former SEC, CFTC Chair Gary Gensler argues that prediction markets don't overrule state regulations 4 hours ago 8 SpaceX's crypto-traded IPO was sharply falling. It now points upward to a $2.4 trillion valuation 4 hours ago 9 The company that makes your TV is taking ads onchain. Arbitrum helped 5 hours ago 10 Bitcoin climbs back into the green as Trump signals an end to the Iran war 5 hours ago Latest Research The Incentive Dynamic Engine: A New Era for io.net Tokenomics The Incentive Dynamic Engine: A New Era for io.net Tokenomics io.net's IDE ties token burns to real GPU demand, replacing fixed emissions with a demand-linked model - live as of 11 June 2026. By CoinDesk Research 1 hour ago Commissioned by io.net io.net's IDE ties token burns to real GPU demand, replacing fixed emissions with a demand-linked model - live as of 11 June 2026. Why it matters : io.net's IDE ties token burns to real GPU demand, replacing fixed emissions with a demand-linked model - live as of 11 June 2026. View Full Report More From Markets While bitcoin holds near $63,000, some data points to pain ahead for bulls Metaplanet buys Siiibo Securities to accelerate bitcoin financial ecosystem plans There's one simple way to tell whether bitcoin has really bottomed. Right now, it hasn't.