After years of wanting to buy Monero for anonymous payments, I was finally able to purchase it without KYC. Because this is my first time and all I can afford, I got a small amount ($30 USD). It’s been almost a month and I have yet to make a single purchase with it, as I don’t need to right now. However, I currently have less than $22 left. I lost 28% of what I bought, and it keeps going down.
I am extremely worried.
Purchasing Monero was complicated for me. I got it through unconventional ways, and I don’t know when I will be able to get it again. I always intended to buy it and save it for payments that would for the most part come months down the line. Maybe even a year.
Yet every day I am losing money, which is making me think that Monero is not a stable currency for crypto savings. Especially when all the purchases I intend to make are priced in FIAT.
If I had bought €36 worth of Monero with the intent of buying a one year Tuta subscription, within days I would have no longer been able to afford it.
Hence, my questions:
Is it wise to buy Monero if you’re not gonna spend it shortly after
Is it safer/wiser to save money in Bitcoin, if the money is gonna stay in my wallet for months before I make a purchase
This is happening because XMR went super high in May and has dropped since then. If you look at XMR over time, every few years it reaches a peak and then falls back down. The long terms trend is still that XMR is slowly climbing in value.
While I get losing 28% in the short term is not ideal, it does not mean XMR is unstable. You just happen to buy XMR when it was decreasing from a high.
I am not buying Monero to save. I never saw it as an investment opportunity.
What I did was buy it in advance to spend later, as in months down the line. The first service I intend to use it for only costs less than $2, often even less than $1. I didn’t expect to lose so much money without spending a dime.
Hence, my other question, is it safer to keep my cryptocurrency in Bitcoin?
The exchange rate of XMR relative to EUR or USD changes all the time. In the short term, sometimes, when you convert to XMR, you will see it increase in value. Sometimes, you will see it decrease. On average over the long term, you will likely see it increase as @anonymous378 says.
Personally, the way I deal with this is to buy larger amounts of XMR every once in a while so that I always have enough to spend. Sometimes, it goes up and sometimes, it goes down, but I know that if I keep using it, on average, I won’t lose any money to these fluctuations.
As you mention, you can also deal with this by just buying the XMR when you are about to spend it, but I personally find that less convenient
To answer your second question, the value of BTC in EUR or USD is also not very stable, so that would not help much. You would also suffer higher transaction fees.
If you want to ensure that you lose the least amount of money possible and you don’t mind waiting for your XMR, you can use something like Kraken Pro to automatically buy XMR when it dips below a certain value, which will ensure that you buy the XMR at an exchange rate where it is unlikely to decrease in value further.
The answer seems obvious then, you should probably only buy it in quantities that you are going to spend right then or, that you don’t mind losing value on in the short term.
This would be true of pretty much anything you buy. There is no point in buying extra that you are not using and don’t want to keep long term.
I see. I didn’t buy Monero from a marketplace. It’s very hard to find some that sell low amounts and don’t require KYC. I bought it through a real life contact I’ve known for years, and happens to be a crypto user. They provided KYC to the marketplace they usually buy cryptocurrency from, and bought Monero for me, that they later sent to my wallet. Although that’s not a sustainable to buy crypto long term, the next time I do it again, I intend to do it the exact same way.
None of this is your fault. I am sorry if I came off like I was blaming you.
Just based on what you told me, if I was you, I would only attempt to buy XMR when you know you are going to spend it relatively soon (ie in the next couple days / week).
As a rule of thumb I would probably look to purchase XMR when the value is lower then 115% ($224.70) of what the value of XMR was at the start of the year. That will probably protect you from losing money even after the value averages out.
Buddy, I get it. You bought something you’re new at and this does not feel good. But I am assuming you only bought $30 because that’s what you would have been “comfortable” losing in the absolute worst case. That said, it’s only $30. Extreme worry is not warranted. What’s happening is not great but is also not the end of the world. Look, I am not tying to disparage your feelings, I do understand. But since you’re new, it’s good to learn early on than much later that crypto is still a volatile place to be and have a lot of money in. I generally only recommend BTC to invest or buy to use as actual currency even though Monero is more private by design. But if you use non custodial wallets like Cake Wallet, BTC in and from Cake Wallet provides a lot of privacy too, so having or buying with XMR is not necessary (practically speaking unless you only want to use XMR because that’s all the merchant accepts). I would say, relax - not the end of the world.
Do you not have any crypto ATMs near where you live? I recommend searching for those as they are the best, easiest, and non KYC way to buy crypto (BTC, XMR, ETH, SOL, etc.)
If you’re planning to buy and spend within hours, yes. If not, given XMR’s volatility, I only recommend BTC if going with crypto still.
Yes indeed. For example, recently I had some BTC appreciate for me and I could buy/add credits to my Proton account “for free” without losing my original purchasing power of my wallet asset.
It should eventually come full circle. Don’t spend for more time and it may bounce back. It’s the market. Things go down and they also can come back up. We just don’t know when.
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Those are my two cents. I still would not call losing portions of $30 a lot of money either. It’s a nominal amount unless $30 where you reside is indeed a lot of money.
I was looking at coinmarketcap.com - theres a ton of sites. The value is the value so it really shouldn’t matter what site you decide to use.
The site is kind of nice as they do try to explain stuff (if you believe their analysis)
TLDR
Monero (XMR) fell 4.17% over the past 24h to $235.88, underperforming the broader crypto market (-1.14%). The drop aligns with a 30-day decline of 27.74%, driven by network security concerns, miner centralization risks, and bearish technical indicators.
Hashrate takeover attempt – Qubic mining pool briefly controlled 51% of Monero’s hashrate, triggering security fears.
Exchange withdrawals paused – MEXC, HTX, and others halted XMR transactions due to network instability.
Technical breakdown – Price fell below critical support levels as RSI14 hit oversold levels.
You are correct. It’s not that big of a deal, but I am quite disappointed.
Since I am a newbie, I trusted PG by using CakeWallet as my wallet, and to use Monero with it since it’s the only private cryptocurrency, from my understanding. I think that was a wise decision.
I found out that there are crypto ATMs in my city, but they don’t sell XMR based on my research. But even if they did, I would worry that they have cameras like regular ATMs. I also suspect, though I could be wrong, that you can’t buy with cash.
How do crypto ATMs work in your corner of the world? Do they require KYC? Can you use cash? Do they have cameras?
I might take that into consideration next time.
Thanks a lot of the advice. I appreciate it!
Thanks for the recommendation and the explanation.
I have another general question:
The contact who purchased XMR for me has an account with an exchange, for which he provided his KYC. They’ve had that account for years. That said, when they purchased Monero for me, it is not clear to me if they sent the money directly to my wallet first, or if they sent it to theirs, and then sent it to my wallet.
If they chose the former, is my privacy compromised to the extends that my wallet will be linked to their ID, a person I know IRL?
True, but my question is, if they sent it from the exchange to my wallet directly, is my privacy somewhat compromised to the extent that is linked to an identity who knows me personally?
Yes and no, I feel. Cake Wallet has features and functionality such that using any currency it supports provides a lot of privacy as it is. Monero is not the only one needed to use it. Just so you know. Especially if you can get BTC in it without KYC.
I would stil buy it non KYC and swap it P2P to XMR if you want it. YOu may lose a very tiny amount in fees so do it if it only makes sense. Atleast, that’s what I would do.
Wear a hoodie and mask (but don’t appear sketchy either). And just do your business and leave the ATM/store that offers crypto ATM. It’s still possible. But if your threat model is as high as you imply, then you would need professional advice on how to stay private in public. This issue should likely be much lower in your list of privacy priorities. Again, my opinion.
Crypto ATMs where I live are in independent convenience/corner stores mostly. They are not operated by the stores and the stores rent the machine from another company so the store has no control over the equipment/ATM whatsoever. Yes, they do have cameras but so does every store and most of public space in a metropolitan city. Camera’s don’t bother me. They don’t know what I am buying and where I am storing it and for what I will be using it. And that’s good enough for me.
They are also non KYC. You enter cash in it, show your wallet QR code, and receive the crypto in your wallet of choice. Easy.
For example, in Cake Wallet, every transaction uses or can use a different crypto address. So your transactions can’t be monitored because you can always use a different address for each transaction (incoming or outgoing). So, the tracking you’re concerned about is mitigated if not eliminated with Cake Wallet. But don’t believe me, give it a try yourself.
My understanding is no. Monero does a very good job at obfuscating sending and receiving addresses. But if you’re worried about it, just don’t use that same receiving address for things you want to be extra private.
This YouTube video by THO on the subject is pretty succinct and informative.
Use kycnot.me to find a site that doesn’t require kyc. You can also swap something like LTC for XMR within Cake wallet as LTC has lower fees than something like BTC. Purchase the XMR while the price is lower. Don’t purchase it when it’s at a peak for the month or year.
