Monero (XMR) has returned to the $600 price region as futures traders rebuild positions, with analysts watching whether the privacy-focused cryptocurrency can break above resistance or retreat toward $570.
Summary
- Monero traded near $596 on October 21, declining 3.05% despite gaining 6.18% over seven days.
- Santiment reported $198 million in futures open interest on October 20, below September’s $208.8 million peak.
- Coin-denominated open interest rose approximately 22% between October 15 and 20 as XMR gained 9%.
- Analyst Ali Martinez identified $602 as a possible breakout trigger, with $630 as his upside target.
- Technical indicators show improving momentum, although resistance between $600 and $620 remains a hurdle.
According to Santiment Intelligence, Monero futures open interest closed October 20 at $198 million, below its September peak, even as the number of outstanding contracts measured in XMR climbed during the preceding five days.
Monero futures open interest rebounds without reaching record levels
Santiment’s October 21 analysis challenged claims that Monero futures open interest had reached a record high.
Its data placed the October 20 closing figure at $198 million, compared with $208.8 million on September 5. The latest reading ranked fifth among daily closes over the preceding 12 months.
Measured in XMR instead of dollars, open interest stood at approximately 329,000 coins on October 20. That remained below the roughly 402,000 XMR recorded on September 2.
The distinction matters when comparing derivatives activity across different periods. Dollar-denominated open interest changes with both contract positioning and the underlying cryptocurrency’s price, while coin-denominated figures provide another measure of outstanding exposure.
Between October 15 and October 20, Santiment recorded approximately 22% growth in coin-denominated open interest, accompanied by a 9% rise in Monero’s price.
— Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) October 21, 2026Is $XMR futures open interest at a record? Not on Santiment’s data.
📊 Open interest closed Oct 20 at $198.0M, below the Sep 5 daily close of $208.8M and only the fifth-highest daily close of the past year.
🧭 Counted in coins, about 329K XMR was open on Oct 20 vs about 402K on… pic.twitter.com/3Zdlfpw9Th
The simultaneous gains indicate that traders were rebuilding futures positions during the recovery, although aggregate open interest does not establish whether buyers or sellers controlled the new positions.
Funding rates presented a different picture from late September.
Santiment found that the seven-day average funding rate reached approximately 2.7 times its June 23–October 13 reference average during September 28–October 4.
During October 14–20, the same measure cooled to approximately 0.9 times that reference average, even as outstanding futures positions grew.
The figures indicate that leverage recovered without funding returning to the elevated levels observed at the beginning of October.
XMR price faces $602 breakout level as analysts watch $630
Crypto analyst Ali Martinez identified a possible ascending triangle on Monero’s hourly chart in an October 20 technical assessment.
The analyst placed resistance near $602, arguing that an hourly close above the level could confirm a breakout toward $630.
At the October 21 price of $595.93, reaching $630 would represent a gain of approximately 5.7%.
However, another analyst, Crypto With Gopal, identified a competing bearish formation on Monero’s 15-minute chart.
The analyst described a head-and-shoulders pattern following rejection near $625, with the neckline around $575. A sustained breakdown beneath that support could expose $520, according to the assessment.
The two forecasts examine different chart intervals. Martinez’s bullish setup uses hourly candles, while Gopal’s bearish formation uses 15-minute price action.
Both identify $600 as an important level, although their confirmation conditions differ.
Crypto Rover separately suggested that Monero was approaching a breakout from a three-year price formation. The analyst’s commentary did not provide a confirmed breakout level or measured price target.
Monero traded between $570.44 and $625.37 during the preceding 24 hours, according to crypto.news market data.
Monero price analysis shows resistance between $600 and $620
On the daily chart, Monero was trading near $597.90, recording a modest session decline after recovering considerably from its July price levels.
The cryptocurrency has maintained a sequence of higher highs and higher lows since July, when XMR traded around $320.
Its recent advance brought prices close to $600, where resistance extends toward $620. A sustained daily close above $620 could put $650 into focus as the next technical target.
Failure to recover $600 would leave immediate support around $570, followed by the 540–550 area. The $500 level remains a more distant downside reference if selling continues.
The Aroon Oscillator, using a 14-period setting, stood at 35.71 after recovering from negative territory. The positive reading indicates improving trend strength, although it remains below levels seen during stronger advances.
Monero’s Accumulation/Distribution indicator registered approximately -243,040. Its recent upward movement suggests improving buying pressure, but the indicator remains negative.
At the October 21 snapshot, XMR had fallen 3.05% over 24 hours to $595.93, despite recording a weekly gain of 6.18%.
Daily trading volume stood near $204.2 million, while Monero’s market capitalization reached approximately $11.22 billion, placing it 13th among cryptocurrencies.
Monero developers release Fluorine Fermi maintenance update
Monero developers released version 0.18.5.4 of the Fluorine Fermi software on October 16, introducing corrections to network and software interfaces.
According to the official release notes, the update fixes DNSSEC validation involving checkpoints, blocklists and update checks.
— Monero (XMR) (@monero) October 19, 2026We're excited to announce that CLI v0.18.5.4 'Fluorine Fermi' has been released!
'This is a minor release that includes bug fixes.'
The release restores string-to-integer conversion in JSON requests through the remote procedure call interface, with developers planning to remove that behavior in version 0.19.
Developers selsta and tobtoht contributed six commits containing 35 new lines of code to the maintenance release.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.