Monero bucked the trend and resisted the trend of down-listing, while XMR's bull flag pattern focus

Monero ignores the controversy of removal, and its historical high of US$799 remains under scrutiny.

The XMR bullish flag keeps the January record hopeful.

Although major exchanges such as Binance and OKX have removed XMR, Monero still hit a record high of US$797.73 on January 14, 2026.

Binan terminated XMR spot trading in February 2024, while Kraken suspended trading services for users in the European Economic Area in October of the same year.

EU regulations that will come into effect on July 10, 2027 target tokens that enhance anonymity, but do not prohibit private holding.

Analyst Patel's chart shows that US$400 is the initial support level, and the US$180 to US$120 range is identified as the long-term support area.

Monero has become a test case: Can the repeated removal of centralized exchanges really permanently weaken the long-term market structure of a cryptocurrency? Analyst Crypto Patel's chart released on August 15 tracked XMR's movement from approximately $0.22 in January 2015 to nearly $799 in January 2026.

CoinGecko's separate records show that the historical low price of Monero is US$0.2162, and the historical high price is US$797.73 on January 14, 2026. The eleven-year rally came amid reduced support from many major exchanges, creating a rare divergence between regulatory pressure and price performance.

Monero ignores the scandal of removal, and the record of US$799 remains the focus

During 2024, the wave of removals will intensify as large centralized platforms reduce support for this privacy-conscious asset. OKX removed multiple XMR spot trading pairs in January, and then Binan terminated all XMR spot trading on February 20, 2024.

Binance said that new regulatory requirements are one of the factors to be considered when reviewing online assets. Since then, Kraken stopped providing XMR trading and deposit services to EEA customers on October 31, 2024, also citing regulatory changes.

Kraken converts remaining customer balances into Bitcoin after its withdrawal deadline. Together, these decisions limit convenient trading channels, but do not remove the network itself or eliminate secondary trading channels.

Regulatory frictions stem directly from Monero's privacy architecture. By default, stealth addresses, ring signatures, and ring confidential transactions hide the recipient, sender, and transaction amount. These protections conflict with compliance systems that increasingly require identifiable transaction information. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s "Travel Rules" require greater transparency in virtual asset transfers.

Europe is also tightening restrictions. European Union Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 prohibits crypto asset service providers from maintaining accounts that support anonymization or enhance transaction obfuscation, including tokens that enhance anonymity. The regulation will take effect from July 10, 2027. However, it does not comprehensively ban privately held or self-managed wallets outside the provider's control.

This difference leaves room for alternative trading channels. The Bitcoin-Monero atomic exchange and the Tor-based peer-to-peer exchange Haveno allow users to trade without relying on traditional centralized order books.

The XMR bullish flag keeps the January record in place. Hope

Patel's monthly chart places the pullbacks after hitting record highs within a large bullish flag structure, rather than viewing them as the end of a long-term trend. The chart marks approximately $400 as preliminary support and defines the $180 to $120 range as a broader long-term support area.

The chart also shows a breakthrough target of US$2000 to US$3000, but these numbers are based on chart technical forecasts and are not determined market results. A more direct reference remains the January record of $797.73.

The current market structure relies on a clear trade-off. A centralized exchange can provide deeper liquidity, more convenient fiat exchange channels, and a more effective price discovery mechanism, while the removal of the exchange may lead to widening spreads.

Even so, CoinGecko data shows that Monero is still traded on platforms such as KuCoin, Kraken and MEXC. This continued activity explains why regulatory exclusion has not caused it to disappear from the market.

As a result, the January high remains crucial because it occurs after, rather than before, the main wave of take-off in 2024. For traders, the chart measures whether reduced exchange access is enough to change demand and thereby break Monero's larger market structure.