Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR): a comparison
Bitcoin and Monero set side by side: how the quotes moved, how the protocols are built and what tasks each one was made for.
Specifications of BTC and XMR
| Bitcoin (BTC) | Monero (XMR) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $78,303.00 | $640.81 |
| Ticker | BTC | XMR |
| Type | coin of its own network | coin of its own network |
| Launched | 2009 | 2014 |
| Built by | Satoshi Nakamoto | — |
| Consensus | Proof of Work (SHA-256) | Proof of Work (RandomX) |
| Block | ~10 min | ~2 min |
| Supply cap | 21 M BTC | no cap |
| Privacy | transfers are public | always on |
| In circulation | 20.11 M BTC | 18.83 M XMR |
| Market cap | $1.57 T | $12.06 B |
| Rank by cap | #1 | #12 |
Source: CoinGecko, Nov 4, 2026 18:57. How these numbers are counted
Price movement: BTC and XMR
The start of the period is taken as 100 for both prices: the chart shows the difference in movement, not the quotes themselves.
| Period | BTC | XMR |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days | −3.05% | +4.28% |
| 30 days | −9.43% | +15.81% |
| 90 days | +21.24% | +72.92% |
The link between their daily moves over the quarter is 0.42 (they travel alike).
The tasks BTC and XMR were made for
- Storing value over the long runBitcoin
- Confidential transfersMonero
- Transfers and paymentsMonero
How Bitcoin and Monero are built
How Bitcoin works
Underneath it is Proof of Work on SHA-256. Miners compete for the right to close the next block, which happens roughly every 10 minutes, and the reward is made up of new coins plus transaction fees. Every 210,000 blocks, about once every four years, the reward is cut in half, so issuance gradually fades out. Balances are not held in accounts but as unspent outputs (UTXO).
What Bitcoin is for
Most people buy bitcoin for the long run and hold it, treating it as a way to preserve capital. At the same time it stays the reference point for the whole market: trading pairs, indices and derivatives are quoted against it. Less often, it is used for what it was built for — cross-border transfers — while small payments are moved to the Lightning Network.
How Monero works
Everything is hidden at once, with no settings to turn on: ring signatures mix decoys in with the real sender, stealth addresses generate a one-time destination address for each payment, and RingCT hides the amount. The coin is mined with the RandomX algorithm — designed for ordinary processors — and a block comes out roughly every 2 minutes. When the main issuance ends, miners will be left with a constant small reward: 0.6 XMR per block.
What Monero is for
People turn to Monero when payments and holdings should not be on public display: otherwise anyone who knows the address sees both the balance and the whole history of operations. Coins in the blockchain are indistinguishable from one another, so XMR is fully fungible.