Everyone’s been hit hard in the past several months, but that’s been especially true for Stellar. The coin has been falling hard since local highs last November, but has finally found its footing and is gaining ground.
Around the same time Bitcoin free-fell from US$6,300, XLM holders were enjoying steady gains up to a local max near 4,500 sats, or US$0.20. Soon after, Stellar Lumens eclipsed Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to become the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market cap at just over US$3 billion.
Unfortunately, 2019 has proven difficult for the traditional banking disruptor- it fell steadily since late 2018 highs, and entered March trading around 2,200 sats, or just over US$0.08. In the same time frame, it fell to #9 by market cap, falling behind EOS, BCH, LTC, BNB, and USDT. During this time, it failed to break resistance at 2,300 satoshis a total of five times.
Today, however, that 2,300 ceiling was finally overcome, and Stellar Lumens has continued to climb beyond it. At time of writing, XLM is up 11% in the past 24 hours, currently trading at 2,520 sats/US$0.099. This makes it the third highest gainer in the past day among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, behind just QASH (+14.5%) and THETA (+40.5%).
Stellar is often referred to as the decentralized alternative to Ripple (XRP). Like Ripple, both coins are geared specifically to redefine global finance. However, Ripple’s emphasis lies in empowering banks, while Stellar’s is with individuals worldwide. The main mission of XLM is to service the underbanked. A host of services that make up the ecosystem, such as remittances, micropayments, and mobile money, lies at the core of this mission.
Speculators suggest that today’s pump might be linked to rumors circulating about an exclusive product announcement at the Money20/20 Asia conference next week. In addition, there are talks about two Security Token Offerings (STOs) launching on Stellar in the next week. However, these rumors have not yet been endorsed by the Stellar team.
Beyond the rumors, it’s very likely that the recent rise in Stellar is simply linked to the market responding to an oversold XLM market. Even with the dump in BTC price, sliding from the fourth to ninth largest market cap in a matter of three months is a hefty drop off. As XLM represents one of the most substantial and professional projects in the market, recent buy support is likely coming from those who expect the cryptocurrency to climb the ranks once more.
For Stellar Lumens to regain the #4 spot, it would need to gain another 82% by current valuations of the competition. If this were to take place, XLM would need to eclipse US$0.18 per coin. There is a long ways to go for such growth to take place, but given the price history and merit of Stellar, a bet on XLM at this point in time represents a fairly safe investment relative to the rest of the crypto space.
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