XMR Outperforms Bitcoin In August, Seeing Its Best Month In Over 5 Years

Monero (XMR) was one of the biggest winners among cryptocurrencies in August, with gains of nearly 50% for the month, far ahead of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) despite the broader rally.Bitcoin rose around 24%, while Ethereum gained roughly 31% month-to-date. Monero’s August rally was on track for its strongest monthly performance since April 2021. That rally has been accompanied by a wave of fresh activity in Monero's derivatives market.Why Is Open Interest Surging?The XMR derivatives market remained very active with total open interest at $319.89 million, which stands about 623,050 XMR, according to Coinglass data. However, total open interest was up 11.28% over the last 24 hours, despite a 1.62% drop over the last hour and 6.91% drop over the last four hours, suggesting traders are still adding leveraged positions amid Monero’s steep rally.KuCoin and Hyperliquid (HYPE) had the largest share of open interest with 27.1% and 29.6% respectively. BingX saw the largest 24-hour increase, with open interest rising 112.61%, showing a major spike in activity.A THORChain Upgrade Adds FuelThe rally also came alongside THORChain’s Version 3.20 upgrade. THORChain is a decentralized cross-chain exchange that allows users to swap crypto assets directly between different blockchains without the need for a centralized intermediary. The update also added native support for trading Monero, allowing users to swap XMR directly for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins.What Analysts Are Saying: Altcoin Dominance While Monero grabbed the spotlight, analysts also discussed the broader altcoin market.In a post on X, analyst TechDev flagged a technical signal, stating that altcoin dominance excluding the top 10 coins has flashed its “first altcoin dominance bull signal since 2020 and 2016” and adding, “your view of cycles may be about to change.”Analyst Ted Pillows pointed out that open interest in altcoins is the highest since the October 10 crash, writing, “2 weeks of pump, and degens are fully back.” The crash referred to the tariff-driven, $19 billion liquidation event that wiped out leverage across crypto markets last year.According to Crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe, the ETH/BTC pair continued “to be going sideways and looks to be going into a great entry zone here.” Van de Poppe added that he expects Ethereum to outperform Bitcoin over the coming month on the back of the Digital Market Asset Clarity Act’s (CLARITY Act) potential approval in September. rose over 1% during the past 24 hours, falling sharply from a 12% intraday high while the broader cryptocurrency market also dipped lower. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around XMR moved to the ‘bullish’ zone from the ’neutral’ zone and chatter shifted to ‘high’ from ‘normal’ levels over the past day.XMR was up roughly 18% year-to-date.