A leaked video from Chainalysis has shown they have delivered on the IRS’s $1.25 million contract to trace Monero.
The good news is that their tracking heavily relies on you connecting to a compromised node.
The (debatably) bad news is that you need to run your own node to ensure privacy.
Review the linked video from Mental Outlaw (I love that guy) for more information.
This post isn’t meant to promote Monero but to serve as a PSA to people already using it and those whose threat model requires it. While it can be incredibly useful when anonymity is required, it’s far from a perfect currency, at least in its current state of adoption.
I understand your aversion to crypto and even agree with you in some aspects, but some people simply don’t have the luxury to use fiat currency.