Wagyu is saving Monero: How a tool is breaking years of price suppression?

Written by: PerpetualCow.hl

Edited by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News

A few days ago, I revealed the multi-billion dollar instant exchange industry, and today I want to connect the clues that no one has pieced together on crypto Twitter yet.

Since 2018, while almost all other cryptocurrencies surged, Monero (XMR) has been stuck in a certain range.

Most people attribute this to exchange delistings, regulatory pressure, or the notion that “privacy coins are dead.”

They are all wrong.

To understand what is happening, you must first delve into the history of Monero (XMR), including all exchange delistings, and how most people actually buy this coin.

The Real Demand for Monero (XMR)

People have always wanted Monero, not just for privacy, but because it is seen as an alternative store of value to Bitcoin—like a Swiss bank account in the 21st century.

Its utility has not changed just because exchanges are afraid of regulation and delist it.

This can be compared to illegal drug trafficking: when you cannot buy from legitimate pharmacies, addicts seek more suspicious channels, even at higher prices, to get what they need.

As a result, demand for Monero flows into instant exchange services rather than centralized exchanges.

From the perspective of ordinary users in 2024:

You want to buy Monero, but Binance just delisted it, and Coinbase dares not touch it. Other small exchanges still trading Monero are likely to freeze your funds because of involvement with this coin.

Your options are only two:

Find a third-rate exchange still listing Monero and pray they don’t run off with your funds.

Use instant exchange services, pay high fees, and pray they don’t freeze your funds indefinitely under the guise of “anti-money laundering review.”

Over 60% of users choose the second option.

These services have become the de facto on/off ramps for the Monero ecosystem.

They are, of course, unregulated, with poor exchange rates, but users have no other choice.

After all legitimate exchanges abandoned Monero, the instant exchange industry became the only channel, handling all Monero trading volume.

Tracking Fund Flows

All instant exchange services operate in a similar way:

Users send Bitcoin, receive Monero, and the service provider secretly charges 3-4% fees (only 0.5-1% on the surface).

But these fees are denominated in Monero.

So how do these providers handle the Monero they receive?

They don’t hold onto it long-term; they are not believers. These are offshore companies seeking fiat profits, immediately swapping Monero for stablecoins and cashing out.

Thus, millions of dollars worth of Monero are sold into the market daily.

In market microstructure terms, this causes a continuous one-way outflow of funds. Regardless of overall market conditions, these providers keep selling. While this is just their business model, the impact on prices is destructive.

Quantifying Capital Outflow

In my previous article, I estimated that the instant exchange industry handles about $150 billion in transactions annually (across all chains), and this is only the on-chain verifiable part.

Monero’s trading volume is invisible due to its privacy features, but industry estimates suggest it accounts for about 20% of total instant exchange volume.

Assuming $30 billion worth of Monero is exchanged annually through these services.

A conservative estimate is that the actual figure might be half of that, around $15 billion.

At an average fee of 0.75% (most actually charge 1%), the annual fees collected in Monero are worth about $112.5 million.

All these Monero are sold into the market.

This means over $300,000 in passive selling pressure daily. It’s like an invisible pump constantly draining the value of Monero.

This is just a conservative estimate. If Monero truly accounts for 20% of trading volume and is charged at 1%, then annually it amounts to $300 million, nearly $1 million of daily selling pressure.

But that’s not all—there’s also the “anti-money laundering trap.”

Anti-Money Laundering Trap

This is the “dirty secret” I revealed in my previous article: although these services promote “no KYC required,” they freely freeze user funds under the pretext of “anti-money laundering review.”

It’s estimated that 2-5% of transactions through instant exchange services are frozen, with higher proportions for large transactions.

This creates a vicious cycle:

Small transactions can go through, but at fees 10-20 times higher than normal.

Large transactions are fully frozen, often permanently.

Only a small fraction of actual demand reaches the market as buy orders.

This creates the cruelest price discovery barrier: those who can truly influence the price are systematically excluded from the market.

The real demand for Monero has always been far higher than what its price reflects. The instant exchange industry either exploits this demand or blocks it outright.

The Caged Market

Let me clarify this vicious cycle:

The instant exchange industry does not win the market through competitiveness. When all exchanges delist Monero, they gain a monopoly and then extract the maximum from users with nowhere else to go.

1% fees, terrible exchange rates, and random fund freezes.

Users tolerate this because they have no other options, and these providers know it well.

This is what happens when an entire asset class is pushed into a single channel controlled by anonymous offshore operators: they extract value with uncompetitive products.

Every penny they extract becomes selling pressure on Monero.

Wagyu’s Solution

Two days ago, Wagyu v2 launched.

The core idea is simple: let Monero users enjoy the same pricing levels as exchange traders.

When you exchange via Wagyu, your order is routed to @Hyperliquidx—where the most competitive market makers in crypto compete for your order.

These market makers also provide liquidity for Binance, Bybit, and OKX, with extremely tight spreads.

The result: you can trade at exchange-level prices and fees, not 1% or 0.5%, but at ultra-low rates like professional traders.

This is the first time since Monero was delisted that users can use their assets without being “ripped off.”

Just a $100,000 trade can prevent over $1,000 of market impact selling pressure.

Within 48 hours of Wagyu v2’s launch, it has processed millions of dollars in exchanges and offers the best market prices:

Trades that would have gone through traditional services, incurring over 1% fees and causing market shocks of tens of thousands of dollars, are now happening via Wagyu.

$1 million exchanged through traditional services = $10,000 worth of Monero sold.

$1 million exchanged via Wagyu = zero forced sell-off.

Multiply this effect by every large Monero buyer who no longer needs to be “robbed.”

Reversing the Vicious Cycle

For years, Monero has been trapped in a negative cycle:

The instant exchange industry, as a value extraction layer, stands between buyers and true prices. They intercept demand, extract profits, and distort price signals. Users cannot bypass them because there are no alternatives.

Now, all that is changing.

Within just two days of launch, trading volume has begun migrating to Wagyu. People realize they can get Binance-level pricing for an asset that even Binance refuses to list, and news is spreading rapidly.

The cycle is reversing:

Monero broke $600 and began its first price discovery in years, and this is no coincidence.

Wagyu is Saving Monero

I won’t be modest about this:

Every trade made through Wagyu instead of traditional services is a real buy order reaching the market.

Every million-dollar trade flowing through us means over $10,000 of Monero is not being sold to other holders.

We are not exploiting the Monero ecosystem; we are directly connecting it to real liquidity.

The parasitic layer that suppressed Monero for years is finally facing competition. And we are not competing under their rules—we are making their entire model obsolete.

When users can get exchange-level prices with zero freeze risk via Wagyu, who will pay 1% to anonymous offshore services that might freeze their funds?

No one.

What This Means

I am not here to give price predictions. I don’t know if Monero will rise to $1000, $2000, or fall back to $400.

But I know for sure: since being delisted, Monero’s demand has finally started to translate into real prices.

In just two days, we are already processing millions of dollars in trades—trades that would have otherwise caused continuous “bleeding” in the market.

With the “ceiling” removed, Monero at $600 is still undervalued. At least for now, the market will truly determine its value.

Price discovery is finally possible, and Wagyu is making it happen.