Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero surged to over $211.07 earlier today—its highest value since May 2022.

At time of publication, Monero has pulled back slightly from its local high, and is currently priced at $205.05, up 17.8% on the day and 30.6% on the week, per data from CoinGecko.

Monero's upward momentum comes as the wider privacy coin sector has heated up over the past week, with the category as a whole up over 12% in the past 24 hours alone, according to CoinGecko data.

Leading the pack in weekly gains are cryptocurrencies including Haven (up 217%), Verge (up 188%%), Zcash (up 27.5%), and Decred (up 30%).

What are privacy coins?

Privacy coins use a variety of cryptographic techniques to shield details of transactions from public view, including ring signatures, single-use addresses and zk-SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge).

Advocates for privacy coins argue that they provide an equivalent level of privacy to physical cash, and that the radical transparency of the majority of blockchains makes cryptocurrencies unsuitable for transactions. That's because identities can be linked to wallet addresses—exposing their entire financial history.

However, privacy coins have also come under intense scrutiny from governments and law enforcement, who claim that their ability to shield transactions makes them a magnet for criminals. Accordingly, numerous efforts have been made to crack Monero's privacy. But, so far, there's been no indication of success.

The recent rise in the price of privacy coins comes after crypto privacy advocates scored a notable win in court, with the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court ruling that the Treasury overstepped by sanctioning coin mixer Tornado Cash.

The decision, reversing a lower court ruling, held that immutable smart contracts such as those used by Tornado Cash cannot be classed as property "because they are not capable of being owned."

While Tornado Cash is a coin mixing service rather than a privacy coin in its own right, its TORN token has surged from around $3.60 in November to a current price of around $18—briefly reaching as high as $33.64.

The regulatory clampdown on privacy coins such as Monero has seen the cryptocurrency delisted from many exchanges, including Binance and Kraken. In June 2020, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that while he personally wanted to list Monero on the exchange, "behind-the-scenes conversations" with regulators had convinced Coinbase to hold off.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.