Monero Plans FCMP++ Upgrade to Replace Ring Signatures

Monero (XMR) plans to replace its existing ring signatures through the FCMP++ privacy upgrade, a network change separate from the token’s recent price rise and earlier privacy-coin market growth.

Ring signatures conceal a transaction’s sender. Monero also uses stealth addresses to conceal recipients and Ring Confidential Transactions to hide amounts. FCMP++ stands for Full-Chain Membership Proofs plus spend authorization and linkability. It is a planned replacement for ring signatures, not a completed upgrade.

In an Oct. 18 trading snapshot taken at 1:03 p.m. ET (17:03 UTC), XMR stood at $592.13, up 8.33% over the preceding 24 hours. Futures volume reached $271.25 million during that period, compared with $16.25 million in spot volume. The gap shows more activity in futures than in spot trading during that window, but does not establish whether spot demand was strengthening.

The privacy-coin market figures published Sept. 24, 2026 cover a different period. They show a five-month gain of $24.54 billion, bringing the sector’s value to $36.51 billion from $11.97 billion. Zcash (ZEC) contributed $20.27 billion of the increase, while Monero contributed $4.33 billion.

Those sector figures precede the Oct. 18 XMR snapshot and do not show that the assets gained at the same time. Neither the trading snapshot nor the planned upgrade establishes a price path for XMR through 2030.