Bitcoin (BTC) vs Monero (XMR): comparison
Side-by-side comparison of Bitcoin and Monero: how their prices moved, how they differ technically and what each is used for.
BTC and XMR: key specs
| Bitcoin (BTC) | Monero (XMR) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $77,902.00 | $515.50 |
| Ticker | BTC | XMR |
| Type | native blockchain coin | native blockchain coin |
| Launched | 2009 | 2014 |
| Created by | Satoshi Nakamoto | — |
| Consensus | Proof of Work (SHA-256) | Proof of Work (RandomX) |
| Block time | ~10 min | ~2 min |
| Max supply | 21 M BTC | no cap |
| Transaction privacy | public transactions | by default |
| Circulating supply | 20.08 M BTC | 18.8 M XMR |
| Market cap | $1.56 T | $9.69 B |
| Market cap rank | #1 | #15 |
CoinGecko data as of Sep 11, 2026, 19:03. How we calculate the data
Price change: BTC vs XMR
Both prices are set to 100 at the start of the period, so the chart shows which coin grew or fell more, not the prices themselves.
| Period | BTC | XMR |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days | −4.84% | −1.85% |
| 30 days | +21.71% | +35.43% |
| 90 days | +20.06% | +51.05% |
The correlation of their daily price changes over the last 90 days is 0.29 (weak).
BTC or XMR: what each is used for
- Long-term store of valueBitcoin
- Private paymentsMonero
- Payments and transfersMonero
How Bitcoin and Monero work
How Bitcoin works
The network uses Proof of Work with the SHA-256 algorithm: miners compete to add a new block roughly every 10 minutes and receive newly issued coins plus fees. Every 210,000 blocks (about four years) the block reward is cut in half, which slows issuance until the 21 million cap is reached. Balances are tracked as unspent transaction outputs (UTXO).
What Bitcoin is used for
Bitcoin is mostly held as a long-term store of value and used as the base asset of the crypto market: most trading pairs, indices and derivatives are priced against it. It is also used for cross-border transfers and, through the Lightning Network, for small fast payments.
How Monero works
Every transaction hides its details by default: ring signatures mix the real sender with decoys, stealth addresses create a one-time destination for each payment, and RingCT hides the amount. Mining uses the RandomX algorithm, designed for ordinary processors, with a new block about every 2 minutes. After the main emission ended, a small permanent reward of 0.6 XMR per block keeps miners paid.
What Monero is used for
Monero is used for private payments and savings, when users do not want their balance and history to be visible to anyone who knows their address. Because all coins look the same on-chain, XMR is fully fungible.