# The Monero Moon

Category: media · Newsletters
Grade: B
Highlights: MONERO-NEWSLETTER, WEEKLY-CURATION, FREE-ARCHIVE, XMR-DONATIONS, LONG-TENURE, PUBLIC-OPERATOR
Web: https://themoneromoon.com
Contact: X: https://x.com/johnfoss69
Last verified: 2026-07-05
Operating since: 2018 (8y)

> Weekly Monero newsletter by John Foss — curated news, developments, and community coverage. 90 issues deep. Free to subscribe. Direct XMR donations to the operator's published address.

## Review

The Monero Moon is a **weekly Monero-focused newsletter** written and curated by **John Foss** (@johnfoss69 on X, verified since 2017). Each issue rounds up XMR ecosystem news, protocol developments, community happenings, and select Bitcoin-adjacent content. Distribution is via Substack — themoneromoon.com resolves to a Substack instance. Issue 90 shipped 2026-06-16.

**Background.** John Foss has been publicly active on X since **September 2017** (verified); the **Monero Moon newsletter launched on 2018-09-09 with Issue 1** (verified via Substack archive; Issues 2 + 3 followed on 2018-09-17 and 2018-09-24). Newsletter tenure: ~7.8 years of continuous output by the time of this listing. 11.6K X followers; 1,000+ newsletter subscribers per the site. Verified operator identity — John Foss is a publicly-named community figure, one of the longest-running Monero newsletter operators. The archive is free and open; the paid tier (if any) is not the barrier to core content.

**What you trust.** Non-custodial — it's a newsletter, not a service. Direct XMR donations to a Monero address published in the operator's X bio (partial: `8C44uscq4DBaj7rFoX7WccdE8GA3PMoWyBC69RijMpeoB9PgWLrbxnjaWwSWGtSL7R1G3dJKTWSA…`). Subscribing requires an email — that email lives inside Substack's cookie + analytics stack, which is a real privacy trade you should understand before subscribing. Reading via RSS or unauthenticated archive fetch avoids the email trade.

**Operational specs.** Publishing cadence: **~weekly** (with occasional breaks). Distribution: Substack (themoneromoon.com), RSS feed, X thread announcements. Content type: curated news roundup, protocol updates, community events, occasional Bitcoin-adjacent commentary. No paywall on the core newsletter per operator claim; paid supporters access same content as free readers. Signup: email required for delivery; RSS reader alternative available. Payment surface: none for readers (free); direct XMR donations for supporters.

**Grade rationale.** Listed at **Grade B** because tenure is exceptional (7.5+ years of newsletter output (2H 2018 launch, 90 issues shipped by 2026-06-16), plus 8+ years of the operator being publicly active on X), the operator is publicly named and verified, the brand is one of the most recognized independent Monero-news properties, and the direct-XMR donation path plus free-archive posture keep it in scope. Grade A is withheld pending: (a) verification that the Substack tier structure never gates core content (paywall creep is a common late-stage newsletter risk), (b) an alternative-delivery path independent of Substack (self-hosted mirror or onion) so readers with strong platform aversion can still consume, (c) independent corroboration on peer directories — the Monero Moon is well-known in the community but a formal cross-listing check hasn't landed.

**Caveats.** *Substack dependency.* Substack collects subscriber emails, sets tracking cookies, and depends on a US-based platform whose editorial policies have shifted over time. The Monero Moon is *distributed* through Substack, not *hosted* on-site — a platform take-down or de-platforming event would force a migration. The RSS route is your privacy-preserving fallback if you don't want to hand Substack an email. Some readers may prefer to only interact via the free RSS feed and skip subscription entirely. Content is curated (opinionated selection of what matters this week) — treat as editorial digest, not comprehensive coverage.

Source: https://xmr.club/media/the-monero-moon