Category: XLM

The Stellar (XLM) Development Foundation celebrated the launch of a preview for their upcoming smart contract platform, called “Soroban”. As part of their “Project Jump Cannon”, the initiative behind the development of the platform, the organization has invited developers to create their own contracts.

Soroban’s announcement has been highly anticipated by Stellar (XLM) users. This platform might provide the network with new use cases, and a new wave of adoption, and might provide it with the capabilities to compete with major blockchains, such as Ethereum.

Per an official post, Stellar’s smart contracts follow the project vision of providing users with an accessible, user-friendly, and scalable platform. The team behind the project claims Soroban has the potential to become the “standard for smart contracts” in the crypto industry.

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) claims that the crypto space lacks a smart contract platform with the above-mentioned features. Most “present too many foot guns for developers”. The SDF said the following on the preview for their smart contract platforms:

We’re doing it because we believe that we’re building something special with Soroban, and true to our open-source roots, we believe it’s important to share the development process. We want Stellar ecosystem developers and smart contract developers from other ecosystems to have a chance to make a meaningful impact together.

Soroban will operate independently from Stellar but will be paired to this network to provide users and developers with accessibility and “equitable access” to the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. The organization clarified that its smart contract platform will be built with Rust as its programming language.

Unlike other popular programming languages in the sector, the SDF believes Rust provides more safety and “efficient” computation. Soroban will also implement WebAssembly (WASM) in its design to meet their scalable, “robust and minimal bytecode specification”.

XLM’s price trends to the downside on the 4-hour chart. Source: XLMUSDT Tradingview
XLM With Potential To Extend Gains

At the time of writing, XLM’s price follows the general sentiment across the crypto market and seems poised to see further appreciation. The cryptocurrency trades at $0.11 with an 11% profit over the past week.

In the short term, XLM records an increase in buying pressure since August 2nd which suggests investors were swayed by SDF’s claims over the future of their smart contract platform. This could remain a critical bullish factor for the long term if the organization is able to launch Soroban on mainnet.

Data provided by Material Indicators (MI) records an uptick in ask (sell) orders as XLM’s price trends to the upside. As seen below, there are around $1 million in asks orders above XLM’s price current levels with an uptick in buying pressure from retail investors.

Stellar’s bid liquidity seems to be getting thinner which could suggest a potential re-test of previous support levels. This could be invalidated if Bitcoin and other large cryptocurrencies keep pushing the crypto market to the upside. In that case, XLM’s price could break resistance and hit $0.18.

XLM’s price (blue line on the chart) coming into resistance (yellow and red levels above price) on short timeframes. Source: Material Indicators

Stellar (XLM) has been following the general sentiment in the market and trending to the downside in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other larger cryptocurrencies were rejected at critical resistance levels and now seem poised to push the sector into support.

At the same time, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) published its Q2, 2022, report celebrating “steady progress on its 2022 roadmap”. The non-profit organization claims the network has experienced improvements in terms of scalability, demand, and participation.

One of this quarter’s major milestones is Project Jump Cannon which is set to provide Stellar with a “robust execution environment for smart contracts”. In January, this network announced the implementation of smart contracts with a tentative launch date set for December 2022.

The announcement was made by Tomer Weller, Vice President of Technological Strategy at the SDF, who has been supervising the implementation of these capabilities with WebAssembly (WASM) runtime. The SDF claims WASM will provide its smart contracts with a secure, scalable, and easily accessible environment.

In addition, the SDF claimed the network has benefited from the introduction of Protocol 19. This update facilitates the “creation of payment channels” or second-layer payment solutions that support “high-throughput use cases”, the report claims.

The Stellar network also expanded its ecosystem in Q2, 2022, with the deployment of MoneyGram Access. Global crypto to fiat on/off ramp financial service that allows MoneyGram customers to send and receive remittances without the high cost of using legacy payment rails.

The SDF has been consolidating major partnerships with international exchange platforms, such as with CoinMe and Mercado Bitcoin. The organization also announced that Novatti will deploy a digital version of the Australian Dollar (AUD) on the Stellar network.

XLM’s price trends to the downside on the 4-hour chart. Source: XLMUSDT Tradingview
Stellar Faces Macro-Economic Headwinds

Despite the network updates, partnerships, and use cases, Stellar (XLM) is reacting to the macro-economic environment. The milestones announced by the SDF are counterweighted by a global economic environment of high inflation, interest rates hike, and less liquidity across global markets.

On short timeframes, XLM’s price records important support below its current levels. Data from Material Indicators shows there are around $1 million in bid orders waiting to potentially operate as support if the price of XLM continues to move to the downside.

Material Indicators record an increase in buying pressure from small investors. Unless larger investors jump into the market with bid orders, this trend suggests a potential re-test of lower levels.

XLM’s price (blue line on the chart) with some support (yellow and red levels below the price) on short timeframes. Source: Material Indicators. 

XLM’s price and the crypto market could see a push to the upside if U.S. public companies’ earnings season contributes by showing positive results, Director of Macro for investment firm Fidelity Jurrien Timmer hinted at that possibility.

Q2 earnings are encouraging so far, but remember, we have 9% inflation, and earnings are generally considered in nominal terms. So there is less than meets the eye here. Expected earnings growth for 2022 remains at +10%, but without the energy sector, it’s only +4.3%. pic.twitter.com/HLSIfjWGoC

— Jurrien Timmer (@TimmerFidelity) July 26, 2022

SDF’s report hints at long-term appreciation for Stellar and its native token, but current macro-conditions are unfavorable. If XLM and major cryptocurrencies can preserve their current levels beyond this week, that could be a potential sign of a sustainable bullish price action.

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and MoneyGram, the payment solution company, have partnered with Techstars. The partners will cooperate to create a support program for developers around the world working on “technological innovation”.

Related Reading | Stellar To Deploy Smart Contracts By End Of 2022? XLM Reacts To The Upside

Specifically, the partners will focus on people trying to improve digital payments and blockchain technology. The objective is “streamline cross-border payments and support financial inclusion”, per a press release.

Techstars is a company that, according to its website, provides access to capital, customers, talent, infrastructure, and mentorship. The company calls itself an “operational investor” created to support people on their entrepreneurial aspirations.

Techstars has worked with ClassPass, DataRobot, DigitalOcean, and crypto-based companies, such as Chainalysis. Their partnership with Stellar and MoneyGram will target ways to remove friction from the process of transferring money in the Latin American region. The SDF explained:

Each year for the next three years, the program will select a class of up to 12 fintech startups to participate in an immersive 13-week program where entrepreneurs will work with mentors from Techstars, the Stellar Development Foundation, and MoneyGram to solidify their value proposition and product-market-fit.

Once the cohorts finish their program, they will have the opportunity to present their progress in front of the fintech community, the released said. Potential participants will be able to start sending applications as early as July 25, 2022, until October 12, 2022.

Denelle Dixon, CEO at the SDF and its Executive Director, claimed blockchain technology has been contributing to improving the legacy payment infrastructure and providing people with better payment cross-border payment methods. Dixon added:

We believe that we can improve access to the financial system for all participants, and we’re proud to work with MoneyGram and Techstars to empower the next generation of innovators to build a more inclusive and accessible cross-border payments system that takes full advantage of 21st-century technology.

Details On The New Stellar Partnership

Per Techstar’s official website, the company also contributes with a monthly stipend for living expenses during their programs. In return, the beneficiaries provide them with a portion of their equity, in the form of fully diluted common stock.

This arrangement stands until the company “raises a priced equity financing of $250,000 or more”. For blockchain-based companies, Techstars claims as much as 6% of the token reserve, if the supported company conducts a “token event, ICO, etc”.

Beneficiaries can access an additional $100,000 in convertible notes. Maëlle Gavet, Techstarts CEO said the following on this new partnership:

At Techstars, we believe great ideas are everywhere, but access to opportunity is not, which is why our global-investment model is to reach founders anywhere and everywhere. As we look to reach founders in the Americas, this program will provide early-stage blockchain and digital asset innovators the advantages and resources they need to succeed in building an inclusive, accessible financial system, and deliver world-changing solutions.

Related Reading | Stellar Development Foundation Launches New Account Model, How Users Will Benefit

As of press time, XLM trades at $0.17 with a 1.4% profit in the last 24 hours.

XLM with moderate gains in the last hour. Source: XLMUSDT Tradingview

XLM has been following the general sentiment in the crypto market and records bullish momentum in lower timeframes. The cryptocurrency records high volatility in the past day, as the U.S. published its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) which continues to trend higher.

Related Reading | Stellar To Deploy Smart Contracts By End Of 2022? XLM Reacts To The Upside

As of press time, XLM is trading at $0.23 with a 1.7% loss in the last 24 hours, a 3.2% and 22.6% profit in the last hour and 30 days, respectively.

XLM moves to the upside on the daily chart. Source: XLMUSDT Tradingview

Although XLM has been following the general market trend, it has been lagging when compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other largest cryptocurrencies. Data from Material Indicators suggest the recent upside move to the upside was sold off by small investors.

As the market approached the CPI print, investors with ask orders of up to $10,000 drove the price down, but bulls were quick at reverting the downside trend. This positive reaction suggests investors have already price-in inflation impact on the market, at least, for the short term.

Bullish intraday reversal on the open. Market saying inflation doesn't matter for now any longer.

— Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) February 10, 2022

Thus, XLM’s price and the crypto market could see an extended bullish trend. Additional data provided by Material Indicators shows that Stellar bounced back on critical support, as there was a cluster of bidding orders around today’s lows near $0.22.

To the upside, $0.240 could operate as the next major resistance area, but bulls could breach through these levels if they managed to sustain momentum. The CPI print was higher than expected with a 7.5% and will continue to be a macro-economic risk for XLM bulls and crypto bulls.

Source: Two Prime Digital Assets via Twitter

However, the short term seems poised for more gains. At least until mid-March when the U.S. Federal Reserve should announce a decision on their monetary policy.

The Bullish Case For XLM And The Stellar Ecosystem

XLM’s price recent price action could be supported by several bullish developments on the Stellar ecosystem. Denelle Dixon CEO at the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) summarized some of the use cases hosted on this ecosystem and impacting the real world.

First, Dixon mentioned the partnership with MoneyGram which has allowed the payment company to provide its users with a “way to seamlessly convert USDC to cash, or cash to USDC”. Thus, creating a gateway from fiat to crypto and vice-versa with its low costs and fast settlement improvements.

In addition, Dixon highlighted the Stellar-based use case developed with Tribal Credit which enables merchants in Mexico to send local currency payments to the United States. These payments are received by U.S.-based businesses in dollars which removes trading friction for small and medium-sized operations.

Related Reading | Stellar Development Foundation Launches New Account Model, How Users Will Benefit

Thus, potentially onboarding more companies onto the Stellar ecosystem. In addition, Leaf Global Fintech has developed a solution with a UNICEF-backed digital wallet that lets people save money in multiple currencies, Dixon said, to help refugees to protect themselves against inflation, move money across borders, and protect themselves against theft. Dixon concluded with the following:

Blockchain is real, it’s here, and it’s solving real problems. It’s time we start talking about how it’s already unlocking new opportunities for migrant workers, refugees, the unbanked, and small and medium businesses all over the globe.

Stellar (XLM) records a positive performance in 24-hours as the crypto market in general recovers from its sell-off. As of press time, XLM trades at $0.20 with a 4.8% profit in the last day.

Related Reading | Stellar Development Foundation Launches New Account Model, How Users Will Benefit

XLM trends to the upside in the 4-hour chart. Source: XLMUSDT Tradingview

On January 25th, Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) Vice President of Technological Strategy Tomer Weller announced via Twitter the integration of smart contract on this network. With a tentative deployment date set by the end of 2022, this addition could transform XLM’s ecosystem and use cases.

As Weller clarified, the SDF aims for a “feature-complete test network” for that period. However, he believes “the ecosystem” most decide when to roll-out smart contract capabilities on Stellar. Weller will host a Twitter Space today at 12:00 Pacific Time (PT) to provide more details. Weller said:

Stellar enables equitable access to the financial system. DeFi is becoming a major part of that system. DeFi isn’t new to Stellar. It’s been core to the protocol with a built in DEX from the get go (before “DEX” was popularized), and AMM functionality became available in ‘21.

The logical step of that development is to support the introduction smart contracts, Weller said, and take DeFi on Stellar to “the next level”. These capabilities could aid the network and its ecosystem to fulfill the vision of the SDF by lowering “the barrier of entry”.

In addition, developers working on this network will be able to create products with “trust-minimized functionality. More importantly, Stellar will no longer have to implement major protocol changes to deploy a product, dApp, or decentralized service.

Weller also claimed the SDF is currently looking at smart contracts programming languages and Virtual Machines (VMs). These could be developed by the SDF or they could use an existing programming language.

Who Will Benefit The Most From Smart Contracts On Stellar?

The non-profit organization will have three priorities when selecting a programming language, as Weller said: safety, scalability, and equitable access. At the moment, the VP for Tech Strategy believes there is not one “off-the-shelf that fits the bill”.

In that sense, he claimed they are currently looking into existing networks and “learning a lot” to evaluate the components that “work”. The Stellar ecosystem will apparently have a voice at choosing this key element of its smart contract functionalities. Weller added:

For users, DeFi on Stellar means direct access to a global network of on and off-ramps. The latest player to join, MoneyGram, will provide crypto->cash conversions in 300,000(!) locations around the world.

Related Reading | How Stellar Will Host Ukraine’s CBDC Pilot Test With Tascombank

Users stand to be the most benefit from the potential integration with smart contracts. The SDF has also set out to provide developers with a “robust toolset” so that dApps on the network will be safe. In addition, the SDF will launch a grant program with the only objective of auditing smart contracts.

Via an official blog post, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced a new account model called Muxed. Created to remove friction and facilitate user interaction with the account model based on this network, and the multiple services build on top of it, the Muxed accounts seem to be an important improvement for the entire ecosystem.

Related Reading | Stellar Network Processes 1.8 Billion Transactions, Was 2021 Its Best Year Ever?

According to the post, a Muxed account is one that combines the GABC and 64-bit integer ID to create a “virtual” account under a traditional address. Due to its characteristics, a muxed account can be identified within a real account.

Thus, if there is a service or product using Stellar to pool multiple accounts, they can now manage them with more ease and will be able to eliminate burdensome issues, such as meme problems. The SDF has called on “products and services built on Stellar” to check if the validators are compatible with the new account model and asked them to “come up with a plan to implement” muxed accounts into their system. The organization said:

Custodial services generally use muxed accounts to map incoming payments to an internal customer database. Businesses may use muxed accounts to map incoming payments to an invoice or customer account.

Other characteristics for muxed accounts, as revealed by the SBF, are the differences in its encoding, they will be 69 characters long and not 56 as a traditional account, and in their base values. As a result, Muxed accounts will have M as their first character rather than G.

Muxed To Improves Transaction Experience On Stellar

Per its GitHub repository, Stellar’s new account model could open more possibilities for the users, and all actors operating on this network and could finally remove the limitations of using a memo-based model:

Experience shows that people frequently forget to include the memo ID, resulting in either lost funds or onerous support calls. Moreover, memo IDs are per transaction, not per occurrence of an account ID, which imposes restrictions on the use of multiplexed accounts. (…) By adding an optional memo ID to the account ID type, we make multiplexed (Muxed) accounts a first-class abstraction that can be used anywhere a normal account ID can be used.

This could significantly improve the way exchanges and custodial services operate with Stellar transactions, and users will save time and money as they will no longer need to manually participate in a transaction. The SBF revealed that muxed accounts was implemented in the Protocol 13 update.

This update was introduced in 2020, but muxed accounts remained hidden until yesterday, January 10th, 2022. Due to its incompatibility with older versions of the Stellar software, projects on this network were given time to update and adjust to the new model.

Related Reading | How Stellar Will Host Ukraine’s CBDC Pilot Test With Tascombank

As of press time, XLM trades at $0.22 with sideways movement in the 4-hour chart, as seen below.

XLM moving sideways in the 4-hour chart. Source: XLMUSDT Tradingview

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has published the end-of-year metrics for their ecosystem and the underlying network. Presented by Denelle Dixon, Executive Director, and CEO at the SDF, the metrics showed a significant increase across the board.

Related Reading | How Stellar Will Host Ukraine’s CBDC Pilot Test With Tascombank

In 2021, per the report by the SDF, the Stellar Network experienced a 32% rise in its number of total accounts with respect to 2020. The number of total accounts stands at 6 million.

On the other hand, the Stellar Network has processed over 1.8 billion total operations. This represents a 127% increased since 2020. The total assets available on this ledger have risen from 8,639 to 90,297 which represents a 945% increase over the same period.

The SDF claims the rise over these metrics suggests there is a growing interest in the Stellar Network. In that sense, they added the following while showing more data on “relevant assets”:

It’s not just about raw network growth. We track growth in relevant assets – assets tethered to real financial instruments – and relevant asset transactions. Since the start of 2021, we’ve seen 11% of relevant assets, and a 2.3x increase in daily transaction volume of these assets.

Source: SDF via Twitter

As a consequence, the Stellar ecosystem has expanded. The SDF records over 10 new anchors coming into the network during this year. This represents a 33% increase since 2020.

The anchor services for this network stand at 30, as shown in the image below. Most of these entities are spread across the globe with a significant percentage in North America, Latin America, and Africa.

Source: SDF via Twitter
2021 The Year Of Important Partnerships For Stellar

In 2021, the SDF saw the deployment of stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) on the Stellar Network. Managed by the Centre consortium, created by Coinbase and Circle, the USDC is one of the most important digital assets to transact in the crypto space.

This was one of Stellar most important partnerships this year, the ecosystem was leveraged by MoneyGram and other major companies. In addition, the SDF’s Enterprise Fund invested over $74 million in projects for companies, such as AirTM, Tala, and Wyre.

The community was a big part of this year’s progress for Stellar, as reported by the SDF. This organization worked with over 50 universities and thousands of students everywhere for hackathons and other activities.

The initiative Stellar Quest welcomed new developers for this ecosystem and generated over 2,700, per the report. In that, the Stellar Community Fund was also a great success which granted over $4 million in the XLM token to be used for developing DeFi, NFTs, and many more use cases on this network.

The SDF celebrated a “tremendous” 2021 and presented its strategic objectives for 2022. This includes increasing Stellar’s network capacity and innovation, increasing the level of participation, and “demanding and promoting diversity and inclusion”.

Related Reading | Stellar To Power VISA’s New Partnership, XLM Begins Breakout

As of press time, XLM trades at $0,28 with a 1.2% profit in the last 24-hours.

XLM moving sideways in the 4-hour chart. Source: XLMUSDT Tradingview

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has been working with the Ukrainian government on their national Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for a while. The collaboration has started to produce results as the SDF, Bitt, and TASCOMBANK recently deployed a pilot project for the electronic hryvnia on this network.

Related Reading | An Introduction To Stellar And XLM: Mission, Control, And Consensus

Per a press release, the partners will test the CBDC’s use cases and its programmable capabilities. These will be leveraged to pay employees at a company called Diia, and to perform payments to merchants and individuals.

According to the release published by Bitt, the project has been under the supervision of the National Bank of Ukraine aided by their Ministry of Digital Transformation. In that sense, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, Oleksandr Bornyakov commented the following on their CBDC’s test phase:

This pilot project will serve as a technological basis for the issuance of electronic money and is the next key step to advance innovation of payment and financial infrastructure in Ukraine.

During the trial on Stellar, the partners will also test the capacity to issue digital currency with “asset-control capabilities for issue”s”. The banking institution will be in charge of testing the implementation of the hryvnia on Bitt’s Digital Currency Management System (DCMS).

The latter company has been in charge of developing a stablecoin with its payment rails for the National Bank of Belize, and it’s behind the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) initiative to launch a CBDC. The target for this project, per its official website, is to increase “opportunities for financial growth”.

Similar to this project, the digital hryvnia will use the “moderns software techniques” and alleged scalable and performant benefits from the DCMS. This system will “protect” the user’s data while regulatory bodies still can access “needed” information, the official website adds the following on their DCMS:

Security is designed-in, to use secure defaults, minimize attack surfaces and provide defense-in-depth. Independent modules allow each component to scale independently of others, allowing automatic adjustment to meet variable demands.

Stellar Spearheads Ukranian Initiative

With its DCMS system Bitt will provide secure minting, currency manager, and a monetary transaction network. Thus, tackling three of the most important items in every CBDC project. Volodymyr Dubey, Chairman of the for TASCOMBANK, said:

Cooperation with Bitt to build on Stellar allows us to connect our core banking system with blockchain-based infrastructure, creating an ecosystem that includes a full range of banking products and operations with electronic currency on the Stellar blockchain.

Dubey also expressed excitement to improve the country’s financial products by using virtual assets. The Ukranian Central Bank and TASCOMBANK have long-term strategies that include innovation supported on blockchain technology and the digital economy.

Executive Director and CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation Denelle Dixon added the following:

Stellar is an open network that was designed with asset issuance in mind, and is uniquely suited to assets like the electronic hryvnia. It offers issuers, like TASCOMBANK, a suite of controls that they can configure for their asset control needs while maintaining the interoperability and flexibility of an open ledger.

Related Reading | Stellar To Launch New Europe-Africa Payment Corridor With This Partner

As of press time, XLM trades at $0,26 with a 2.9% loss in the past 24 hours.

XLM on a downtrend in the 4-hour chart. Source: XLMUSDT Tradingview

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has made a fresh bet on the financial services sector. According to a press release, the institution participated in a $145 million series E for Tala.

A global technology company working on providing millions of people with access to lend, borrow, and other financial services Tala reached an over $350 million funding with support from the SDF and its Enterprise Fund, Upstart, and others.

Related Reading | Stellar Network To Power New Savings API Launched By Wyre

Launch in 2020, the SDF’s Enterprise Fund provides support, in U.S. dollar or XLM, to payments companies with a cross-border approach, companies that provide financial inclusions in emerging markets, access to tokenized assets, and other criteria.

The fund was launch with the objective of investing in companies capable of bringing real world use case and contribute with the Stellar ecosystem.

Tala will use the funds to create a crypto product to attract mass adoption especially oriented to developing countries. In these countries, over 3 billion people lack options to participate in the global financial sector.

Thus, Tala will leverage cryptocurrencies, mobile technology, and data science to provide people with tools to increment their wealth and achieve economic independence.

Related Reading | Stellar To Introduce AMM Functionality, What This Means For Its Ecosystem

Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director for the Stellar Development Foundation, claimed that their investment in Tala represents their confidence in the company’s potential. Dixon added:

Joining forces with Tala to improve access to financial services for millions of people in emerging markets is exactly aligned with our mission at Stellar Development Foundation. Since the Stellar network leverages interoperability with the world’s existing financial systems, Stellar and Tala technology together are a powerful tool to bridge gaps for those who have been left out.

Stellar New Partnership And A Future Of Financial Inclusion

The CEO and Founder of Tala Shivani Siroya said the following on their progress over the past years, trying to improve the traditional financial system, and their future:

This new investment will accelerate our path to becoming the primary financial account for the global underbanked and helping millions more people make progress in their financial lives. Paul Gu and Denelle Dixon are visionary leaders who share our commitment to building a financial system that works for everyone and we are thrilled to welcome them to the team.

The Co-Found and Head of Product at Upstart Paul Gu claimed that Tala has begun to solve one of the most important issues for consumers in the developing world by providing with access to financial services. Gu said:

Upstart shares Tala’s belief that technology is the key to unlock access for the underserved, and we’re excited to support them in serving the next 1 billion people entering the financial system.

As NewsBTC reported yesterday, Stellar has been making relevant developments, getting major partners such as payment giant MoneyGram, and investments in 2021. This network ecosystem seems to be growing as the year ends.

This has translated into positive performance for Stellar’s native asset XLM. Over the past 2 weeks, this cryptocurrency has been one of the best performing assets in the crypto top 25 with a 35.7% profit.

Related Reading | Stellar Development Foundation Takes Part In Abra $55 Million Series C Funding

In lower timeframes, as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and the rest of the cryptocurrencies in the top 10 move sideways, XLM records a 2% and 3.5% profit in the daily and weekly charts, respectively.

XLM with minor profits in the daily chart. Source: XLMUSDT Tradingview

Up 10% in the daily and 36.3% in the 2 week chart, at the time of writing, Stellar Lumens (XLM) has been one of the best performing assets in the crypto top 30 by market cap. The cryptocurrency has managed to outperform Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other major coins in the top 10.

XLM with minor profits in the 24-hour chart. Source: XLMUSDT Tradingview

Stellar technical indicators have quickly moved into the buying zone with the simple moving average (SMA) and exponential moving average (EMA) crossing the $0,32 mark.

Related Reading | Stellar Development Foundation Takes Part In Abra $55 Million Series C Funding

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) remains neutral with a 61.5 value, but the Moving Average Convergence Divergence, a metric used to measure price momentum in an asset, is flashing a buy signal.

XLM trending to the upside coincides with exponential growth in its ecosystem. As summarized by the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), the network made significant developments in Q3, 2021.

In addition, it managed to secure important partnerships such as the one with payment giant MoneyGram. This will allow users to connect their wallets with the company’s global retail platform.

Thus, consumers will be able to leverage cash funding and payouts in USD Coin (USDC) with Stellar potential to instantly settle a transaction. In that sense, the network has expanded its main use case and its capacity to onboard millions of new users into its network.

Related Reading | Stellar Network To Power New Savings API Launched By Wyre

At the time, the CEO and Executive Director for the SDF Denelle Dixon called the partnership a demonstration of the power of blockchain technology to improve the legacy financial system. Dixon added:

Thanks to the reach of MoneyGram’s services and the speed and low cost of transactions on Stellar, a new segment of cash users will be able to convert their cash into and out of USDC, giving them access to fast and affordable digital asset services that may have previously been out of reach.

Stellar Growths To Fulfill Its Original Vision

In addition to the MoneyGram partnership, the SDF released a Whitepaper describing how Stellar was designed to facilitate the deployment of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

The SDF claims that the network has unique characteristics which allow it to support these assets and how a central bank can issue implement it on Stellar.

With the development of the digital Yuan and its fast progress, CBDCs are climbing the priorities of international governments. The network could support the CBDCs of the European Union, of developing countries in Africa, and others in the future.

In addition, as NewsBTC reported, the network will soon vote to implement Protocol which will grant it Automated Market Makers (AMMs) functionality. The SDF claimed:

This AMM development process to-date has been a shining example of how our entire ecosystem can work together, anchored around Stellar’s guiding open source principles, to further Stellar network development and sets a new bar on our collective collaboration.

The ecosystem has experienced other important developments and its use cases from cross-border payments to its energy efficiency to a recently announced initiative to accelerate blockchain education.

Related Reading | Stellar To Introduce AMM Functionality, What This Means For Its Ecosystem

In many sectors, XLM seems to be moving ahead of the curve and it has reflected on its price action suggesting a strong potential for a sustained rally into Q4, 2021.

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) will enable an automated market maker (AMM) functionality via Protocol 18. The implementation will take place with a network upgrade, but a specific date is yet to be revealed.

In an official post, the SDF claims that the new functionality will help improved market liquidity. The Stellar Network has been created to aid financial infrastructure to issue assets for cross-border and international payments. Thus, better liquidity will also positively impact its main use case and increase its chances of success. The SDF said:

(…) improving liquidity is an essential part of the 2021 growth plan. The ability to efficiently convert assets is what enables varied use cases and actors to interact with one another on Stellar.

AMMs have been popular in the DeFi sector. Decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap and SushiSwap allow users to exchange tokens, provide liquidity, and receive rewards. The SDF acknowledged that the creation of a liquid market can be a challenge, but this functionality could be a major addition for the ecosystem to grow and become simpler and more accessible for everyone.

Currently, Stellar operates with an order book and a built-in DEX feature, the SDEX. The platform allows users to trade assets on the network with a priority mechanism based on price. Trades are activated automatically and facilitate asset transfer with asset conversion.

Stellar Takes Another Step Towards Global Adoption

Although this model has functioned with success, the SDF believes it presents limitations in terms of liquidity, complexity, and a key component that drives the operation, the market makers. The latter have few incentives to provide liquidity for every asset available on the network.

They usually seek high-volume trades that will yield more profits. With an AMM, developers can create their own build-in feature and use it to provide an alternative source of liquidity. These AMMs would co-exist with the current model if, as the SDF clarified, they are approved by the validators. The foundation said:

AMMs on Stellar have the potential to provide easy-to-access liquidity at scale, especially for new markets and markets currently overlooked by market makers. That’s because asset issuers will no longer need to rely on market makers to stock order books: they can simply create liquidity pools, and allow individual users to provide liquidity by depositing into them.

The SDF has been discussing how to introduce AMMs in the network for many years. The organization and community have been actively discussing different approaches. In the end, the group of protocol designers for the Stellar Network known as the CAP Committee voted to implement proposal CAP-38.

Consider as the easiest implementation for AMMs. This proposal will introduce constant product liquidity pools which will operate similarly to Uniswap, enable users to create liquidity between two assets, store pool share, allow users to deposit and withdraw assets for the pools, and more.

The proposal contemplates a 0.3% fee for transactions with AMMs. However, the SDF claims that all proposals can be review and modified. The CAP Committee will monitor the operations and evaluate if the ecosystem requires additional features.

When Stellar Core v18.0.0 is stable, we will upgrade the testnet so that developers can begin to experiment with sandbox AMMs.  About a month after the testnet upgrade, we will coordinate a date and time for validators to vote on the public network upgrade.

At the time of writing, XLM trades at $0,26 and has followed the general sentiment in the market with a 1.8% and 38.6% loss in the daily and monthly chart, respectively.

Stellar follows the general market sentiment with green indicators across the board. XLM’s price seems to be positively reacting to the increase in USD Coin (USDC) liquidity on top of its blockchain. Additionally, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) made a potential groundbreaking announcement.

Alongside VISA, Tala, and Circle, one of the companies behind USDC, the cooperation aims to provide access to digital assets in emerging markets. Initially, Tala will enable unbanked users to access this stablecoin in a digital wallet.

Thus, they will be able to make cross-border transactions and access fiat to crypto services. In addition, Visa will issue cards with funds linked to the wallet. In doing so, these users will have the capacity to spend their crypto balance in over 70 million merchants around the world.

Visa has doubled down on their crypto strategy in 2021 and seems like more integrations are to come. The company is exploring new ways to leverage digital assets in its payment platform. The head of Visa’s crypto department, Cuy Sheffield, said the following:

(…) we’ve been really interested to see how they could have the potential to help consumers in markets where they don’t have great access to financial services.

Shivani Siroya, Tala’s CEO, claimed that their main goal is for people to send remittances at a low cost. The Santa Monica-based company has clients in Mexico, Kenya, India, and other countries in the Asian continent. The cooperation with the SDF, Visa, and Circle is Tala’s first jump into the crypto space. SDF’S CEO, Denelle Dixon, said the following on the cooperation:

By working with innovators like Tala mobile, Visa, Circle who share our vision that financial inclusion is a right, not a privilege, we can bring the benefits of tech to emerging markets & take a step closer to our mission of equitable access to the global financial system!

Stellar (XLM) On A Bullish Trajectory

Stellar Lumen native token XLM seems to be positively reacting to this announcement. At the time of writing, XLM trades at $0,65 with a 13.4% rally in the daily chart. In the higher timeframes, the cryptocurrency seems more bullish with a 31.7% and 23.4% rally.

Trader Pentoshi took the opportunity to take a long position. The operator believes XLM’s rally has gone unnoticed after it managed to break out of its 680-day range. Pentoshi added the following:

XLM beginning its breakout. There’s little to no resistance built because of the inefficiencies on the moves shown. Probably goes higher than people think because of the 680-day range. Holders outperform traders.

The trader expects XLM to reach a new high in the short term and added: “When something breaks out of a multi-year range. It tends to go much higher than people think”.