ETC, XMR, XTZ Prices Soar While Majority Cryptos Bleed: Here's Why

Almost all coins are bleeding as the bears make the crypto market their stomping ground. But there are some green shoots here.

As of 10.59 p.m. ET, Ethereum Classic (ETC) was up 15.3% at $25.52, Monero (XMR) was up 4.28% at $197.94 and Tezos (XTZ) was up 5.59% at $2.09, as per the data from CoinMarketCap (CMC).

Monero (XMR) is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency and as its website states, it is the "only cryptocurrency where every user is anonymous by default." Due to being untraceable, XMR has the tendency of being used in the darknet markets, to launder money generated from hacks, breaches, etc., or evade sanctions imposed by nations. Another important aspect that drives XMR prices is the mining reward. With the introduction of the new GUI, which added support for P2Pool, Monero saw a massive surge in the number of active miners.

Tezos (XTZ), an open-source blockchain project that follows a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus, is also bullish and a major reason for that is the rise in popularity of the blockchain, which also supports smart contracts. eBay launched a sports NFT collection in partnership with the Tezos-powered NFT platform, OneOf.

Interestingly, Tezos also joined hands with Bitski, a startup that provides custom NFT storefronts for creators and brands, to launch an NFT collection titled "Red Bull Guest House Keys."

On the other hand, Ethereum Classic (ETC), a smart contracts platform that hard forked from Ethereum (ETH) in 2016, has been attacked numerous times, as per data available on Wikipedia. The blockchain network has suffered multiple 51% attacks in the past few years.

A reason for ETC's surge could be the increase in the number of miners who are shifting from Ethereum due to the upcoming Merge. After ETH shifts to Proof-of-Stake, Ethereum Classic will become the largest Proof-of-Work smart contract platform and will inherit Ethereum miners in the process.