Stellar

Stellar is an open network that allows money to be moved and stored. When it was released in July 2014, one of its goals was boosting financial inclusion by reaching the world’s unbanked — but soon afterwards, its priorities shifted to helping financial firms connect with one another through blockchain technology. The network’s native token, lumens, serves as a bridge that makes it less expensive to trade assets across borders. All of this aims to challenge existing payment providers, who often charge high fees for a similar service.

The Stellar project was launched in 2014 by Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb and his partner Joyce Kim. McCaleb left Ripple in 2013 due to disagreements about the project’s vision with fellow co-founders.

Stellar is an open network that allows money to be moved and stored. When it was released in July 2014, one of its goals was boosting financial inclusion by reaching the world’s unbanked—but its priorities shifted to helping financial firms connect with one another through blockchain technology. 

The network's native token, lumens, serves as a bridge that makes it less expensive to trade assets across borders. All of this aims to challenge existing payment providers, who often charge high fees for a similar service.

There are about 50 billion lumens in existence. No more lumens will be created. There are currently about 20 billion lumens circulating in the open market

The Stellar Development Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that supports adoption of the Stellar Lumens payment network, was created in collaboration with Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. Stripe received 2 billion lumens in return for a $3 million seed investment. 

Magic Eden, a Solana-based NFT marketplace, achieved its highest monthly trading volume in March, outpacing Blur with a 194.4% increase to $756.5 million, attributed to its Diamond reward program and support for creator royalties.

Magic Eden Surges to Top Spot in NFT Market, Records Stellar $756M Trading Volume in March

In the first quarter of 2024, meme coins significantly outshone all other cryptocurrency narratives by delivering an astonishing average return of 1312% across its leading tokens, as observed in a report by Coingecko.

Coingecko Report: Meme Coins Eclipse AI and RWA Tokens With Stellar Q1 Performance

Soroban introduces a new way for developers to deploy smart contracts on Stellar, using WebAssembly (WASM).

Smart contracts finally arrive on Stellar network with Soroban launch on mainnet

Bitcoin

Ether

A federal jury in Washington has just convicted the Russian-Swedish operator of the crypto mixing service Bitcoin Fog. In a statement, the Justice Department says Roman Sterlingov is found guilty of money laundering conspiracy, sting money laundering, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and violations of the D.C. Money Transmitters Act.

Crypto Mixer Founder Convicted of Money Laundering in US, Forfeits Cash, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero and Stellar

Aave

Uniswap

Widely followed analyst Nicholas Merten is offering his forecast on four crypto assets amid an industry-wide market rally. Starting with payments-focused blockchain network Stellar (XLM), Merten tells the 510,000 YouTube subscribers of the DataDash channel that the XRP rival is sitting at a “typical discount range”.

Analyst Nicholas Merten Says XRP Competitor Could Go Up by 200%, Updates Outlook on Aave, Compound and Uniswap

Bitcoin experienced a 6.8% increase on Wednesday, reaching a peak of $64,000. This upturn also propelled several other digital assets upwards, notably arweave (AR) with a 50.3% increase and aptos (APT) with a 23.5% appreciation against the U.S. dollar.

Arweave and Aptos Lead Crypto Market Surge With Stellar Gains as BTC Nears All-Time High

Bitcoin reached a peak of $57,055 on Monday, climbing 10.1% over a 24-hour span and elevating the digital asset's market value to $1.10 trillion. The value of bitcoin relative to the U.S. dollar hasn't ascended to these levels since Nov. 22, 2021, marking 12 days after the digital currency's peak value of $69,000.

Bitcoin Reaches $57K in Stellar Monday Surge, Erasing $70 Million in Shorts in Just One Hour

Stellar has announced the introduction of smart contracts as part of its Protocol 20 update, passed by a validator vote on Feb. 20. The upgrade introduces Soroban, the new smart contracts system, to mainnet, and initiates a phased rollout for validators to monitor the performance of these transactions before scaling them at a subsequent phase.

Stellar Debuts Smart Contracts With Protocol 20 Update

The "Protocol 20" upgrade, which adds support for Ethereum-style smart contracts to the decade-old payments-focused blockchain, had been delayed by three weeks due to precautions after a bug was found.

Stellar Starts Phased Rollout of 'Soroban' Smart Contracts

The African stablecoin on/off ramp, Yellow Card, is set to introduce the stablecoin USDC on the Stellar network. This partnership has the potential to transform global payments and accelerate the adoption of digital assets.

Licenced Stablecoin on/off Ramp Yellow Card to Introduce USDC on Stellar Network

The Stellar Development Foundation wishes to put a hold on the upcoming Protocol 20 upgrade of the Stellar blockchain network, originally scheduled for January 30. This decision follows the discovery of a bug that could impact the Soroban smart contract transactions.

Stellar Development Foundation Votes to Delay Protocol 20 Upgrade Amid Bug Concerns

A bug identified on Jan. 25 was deemed to pose "little risk," but after receiving "robust feedback" from the blockchain's developer community, the Stellar Development Foundation opted to "disarm" its validators ahead of the Jan. 30 target date for the Protocol 20 upgrade.

Stellar's Foundation Supports Delay of Smart-Contracts Upgrade After Bug Found

Solana

Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) has emerged as one of the top gainers among Layer-1 (or base) blockchains, up over 80% in the past month. Other top-performing Layer-1 cryptos in the past month include Avalanche (CRYPTO: AVAX) up 82%, Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA) up 28%, and Tron (CRYPTO: TRX) which gained 8%.

Solana's Stellar Month: Nearing $70 As Top Layer-1 Crypto, Surpassing Ethereum And Bitcoin

The nine-year-old project, one of the earliest major blockchains, is getting a facelift to incorporate "smart contracts," that theoretically could attract new applications and users – and potentially more demand for the XLM token.

Stellar, Early Blockchain Built for Payments, Adds Smart Contracts to Take on Ethereum

A Bloomberg crypto market analyst says Ethereum (ETH) and one XRP rival are dominating institutional interest in real-world assets issued on public blockchains. Jamie Coutts says on the social media platform X that traditional finance is driving real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and he predicts that more firms will enter the space soon.

Ethereum and One XRP Rival Dominating Institutional Interest for Real-World Asset Tokenization: Bloomberg Analyst

Stellar has partnered with security firm Certora to conduct security audit checks for its upcoming smart contracts platform, Soroban.

Stellar conducts security checks for upcoming smart contracts platform Soroban

Circle announced Tuesday the launch of its euro-backed stablecoin on the Stellar network Layer 1 blockchain.

Circle launches EURC stablecoin on Stellar network

With expanding EURC stablecoin to Stellar, Circle expects to boost European remittance channels, cross-border payments, treasury management and aid disbursement.

Circle's Euro-Pegged Stablecoin Is Now Available on Stellar Network

Circle's EUR-pegged stablecoin on Stellar now means that EURC is live on three different blockchains including Ethereum and Avalanche.

Circle's EURC Stablecoin Launches on Stellar Network

Dogecoin

Dogecoin moved away from a key price floor on Saturday, as the meme coin ended a three-day winless run. Price has traded in the red since Wednesday, leading to a collision with a support point of $0.0620. Stellar also rallied, nearing a one-month high in the process.

Biggest Movers: DOGE Moves Away From Support Level, XLM Nears 1-Month High

Cronos rose for a second consecutive session, as the token continued to move away from a recent three-month low. Volatility in the marketplace was high on Friday, after several days of price consolidation. Stellar also surged, moving to a three-day high.

Biggest Movers: CRO Moves From 3-Month Low, XLM Extends Recent Gains

Toncoin was a big mover on Thursday, as the token rose by nearly 4%, closing in on the $1.90 level in the process. The rally came despite crypto price consolidation, with the global market cap largely unchanged as of writing. Stellar also surged, remaining near a recent two-week high.

Biggest Movers: TON Moves Towards $1.90, XLM Remains Near Recent Highs

Stellar surged by as much as 7% on Monday, despite sentiment in crypto markets being mostly bearish to start the week. The token rallied for a second straight session, after a recent collision with a key price floor. Toncoin also rose, hitting a fresh multi-month high.

Biggest Movers: XLM 7% Higher, TON Nears $2.00 Threshold

The latest price moves in bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets in context for Sept 4, 2023. First Mover is CoinDesk's daily newsletter that contextualizes the latest actions in the crypto markets.

First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Hovers Below $26K; Stellar's XLM Rallies

The price of Stellar (XLM) skyrocketed 10% over the past day, while the wider crypto market is trading flat.

News for Stellar Crypto (XLM)