The head of the privacy-centric altcoin Monero is stepping down after leading the project since its inception. The news comes at a time when XMR is down 60 percent after peaking at $121 in June.
Fluffypony steps down
In a blog post, the Monero Core Team announced that Riccardo Spagni, known as fluffypony in the crypto community, is resigning as the “lead maintainer” of the project. Although the announcement did not mention the exact reasons behind the move, Spagni revealed his intentions to pull out of Monero last year.
Spagni said:
“I was the lead maintainer across all the projects, and at some point… I was like: I can’t do this. I will always be an advocate for privacy, and for Monero, a part of the Monero community, but my actual responsibilities by definition need to be reduced.”
Despite his stance, fluffypony will not be leaving the team entirely. Instead, He will serve as a backup maintainer during times when his successor is not able to perform his duties.
The Monero Core Team also shared that Snipa, a long-time contributor to Monero, will take the vacant position, and Luigi1111 will continue as a backup maintainer of the CLI repository. According to the team, Snipa has a vast experience in coding and auditing and has built essential pieces of codes in Monero’s pool software and network nodes.
As Monero prepares to make significant changes in its team structure, the price of this cryptocurrency is trending down.
XMR technical analysis
Following the peak at $121 on June 23, XMR entered a steep corrective phase. Over the past six months, this cryptocurrency plummeted over 60 percent to recently hit a low of $44.80.
Now, the TD sequential indicator is presenting a buy signal in the form of a red nine. A validation of this bullish signal could set the stage for a pullback to the upside or trigger a new upward countdown.
A green two candlestick trading above a preceding green one candle will confirm the bullish signal. However, the bullish impulse could be invalidated the moment a red two candlestick trades below a previous red one candle.
An increase in demand for XMR could take it to test the $51 resistance level. And, if the bullish momentum is strong enough, this crypto could try to hit the next levels of resistance at $56.40 and $65.
Conversely, a spike in the selling pressure behind Monero could prolong the corrective phase it entered in late June. Such a bearish scenario could take XMR to break below the current level of support and plunge over 14 percent to hit the next price barrier at $38.50.
Moving forward
Fluffypony’s leadership stood out as one of the leading developers in the cryptocurrency industry since its early beginnings. But, the Monero Core Team seems enthusiastic about having Snipa as the new lead maintainer of the project. Snipa’s extensive knowledge will likely see Monero expand even further.
Time will tell whether the team reshuffle will serve to push XMR out of the downtrend it entered in June.
Monero, currently ranked #15 by market cap, is down 7.01% over the past 24 hours. XMR has a market cap of $791.26M with a 24 hour volume of $105.76M.
Chart by CryptoCompare
Monero is down 7.01% over the past 24 hours.
Posted In: Monero, Analysis, Price Watch, Technical AnalysisThe post appeared first on CryptoSlate
