Surging about 4% in the past 24 hours, Stellar (XLM) goes through December with a mix of optimism and caution as new payment integrations and institutional pilots draw attention back to the network’s utility. Related Reading: The Current Bitcoin Price Pump Will End In A Crash – Here’s When To Start Selling However, despite signs of growing real-world use, XLM continues to trade near a critical long-term support level, leaving traders divided on whether the token is preparing for a recovery or facing another downward leg. Recent activity across payments, banking pilots, and data-infrastructure upgrades show how Stellar’s ecosystem is expanding at a time when the token sits at a pivotal market position. The tension between strengthening fundamentals and fragile price structure is shaping the month’s outlook. XLM's price trends to the downside on the daily chart. Source: XLMUSD on Tradingview Rising Utility Gives Stellar a Boost Network usage has climbed following several developments in November. Wirex activated USDC and EURC card-settlement on Stellar for more than seven million users, shifting everyday transactions onto the blockchain and increasing stablecoin throughput. Days later, U.S. Bank began testing a programmable stablecoin on Stellar, adding an institutional layer to the network’s growing settlement activity. The recent integration of Space and Time (SxT), which now indexes the full Stellar network and provides cryptographically verified data to institutions, also strengthens the chain’s infrastructure. Together, these upgrades position Stellar as a functioning payments network rather than a speculative asset alone. Early market reaction has been modest, but analysts note that expanding stablecoin flows could support stronger demand for XLM over time. Price Holds Key Support as Traders Watch $0.245 Despite the momentum in utility, XLM continues to sit at one of its most important technical zones. The token has trended downward since November 2024 and now trades just above the $0.245 horizontal support, an area that has repeatedly prevented deeper losses over the past year. Weekly indicators remain bearish, with RSI below 50 and MACD negative, suggesting that long-term momentum still leans downward. Short-term charts show a contained bounce within an ascending channel, which analysts view as corrective rather than a new uptrend. A decisive break below $0.245 could open the door to new lows, while holding this level would give bulls another chance to challenge overhead resistance. Resistance Blocks Cap Upside Expectations Even with potential catalysts from network growth, analysts remain cautious about XLM’s ability to retest previous highs. Multiple reports highlight the $0.26–$0.27 range as the first major resistance zone, followed by a broader cluster near $0.28–$0.31. Some forecasts suggest a possible move toward $0.31 by year-end if momentum strengthens, though this outlook carries medium confidence given the broader market’s uncertainty. Related Reading: NFT Slump Worsens With Monthly Sales Hitting Rock Bottom Stellar’s December narrative is supported by two opposing forces, rising real-world adoption and a price chart still struggling against long-standing resistance. Whether utility gains translate into market recovery will depend on XLM’s ability to hold its support level and reclaim key technical thresholds in the weeks ahead. Cover image from ChatGPT, XLMUSD chart from Tradingview
Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) leadership is signaling a decisive push into mainstream finance for the remainder of 2025, hinting that “some of the biggest names in payments and asset management” are set to go live on the network in the coming weeks and months. Speaking alongside SDF CEO Denelle Dixon, José Fernández da Ponte—who joined SDF in mid-July and now serves as President & Chief Growth Officer—framed the acceleration as the culmination of a year spent laying technical and go-to-market groundwork. Biggest Names In Payments Coming To Stellar “We are the blockchain for financial services at scale,” Fernández da Ponte said, adding: “Over the next months, you will see some of the biggest names in payments and asset management that will continue to go live on the network.” He underscored the claim with growth figures from the on-chain economy: “If you look at TVL and DeFi for the last year, TVL in aggregate grew 2x. TVL on Stellar grew 9x… I have not seen a blockchain that has been growing there as fast.” The executive credited community-originated wallets and protocols, and the team’s continued work on “plumbing” for an open-source, permissionless stack, as catalysts for that momentum. Dixon, for her part, positioned the first half of 2025 as “laying the foundation,” and said the back half must deliver “big acceleration” on the tech side, singling out Protocol 23 as the upgrade set to make Stellar “stronger, faster, and developers’ lives easier.” Related Reading: Stellar (XLM) Turns Bullish, Can the $0.386 Wall Finally Break? She also flagged the on-network expansion of the stablecoin universe—“PYUSD on Stellar was announced, new assets are coming, and others continue to scale”—plus tangible usage wins from wallet programs that have converted one-off sign-ups into weekly activity. Those remarks track with SDF’s public roadmap and adoption goals for 2025, which emphasize real-world payments, DeFi depth, and pushing toward top-tier TVL rankings. The payments-stablecoin pillar is central to that strategy. In June, PayPal disclosed plans to make its dollar stablecoin, PYUSD, available on the Stellar network, pending regulatory approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services. The move would add another high-profile issuer to Stellar’s rails and broaden PYUSD’s distribution beyond its current venues. Neither PayPal nor SDF has provided a firm mainnet date, but the companies have reiterated the intent publicly throughout the summer. On the protocol side, Stellar’s “Whisk” release—Protocol 23—anchors the second-half execution plan. SDF documentation describes a package of eight Core Advancement Proposals that include parallelized processing, unified events, fee and throughput improvements, and developer-facing refinements around Soroban smart contracts. Related Reading: Stellar About To Moon? XLM Price Prediction Calls For 400% Explosion SDF scheduled testnet and governance milestones across the summer, setting up a mainnet vote around early September. The intent is straightforward: raise performance and ergonomics to meet the institutional-grade expectations of payments processors and asset managers now circling the network. The organization will attempt to convert that pipeline into concrete announcements this week at Meridian—SDF’s flagship annual conference—held September 17–18 in Rio de Janeiro. With builders, policy voices, and would-be enterprise adopters on site, the event’s timing aligns neatly with leadership’s “coming weeks” guidance, though neither Dixon nor Fernández da Ponte named specific partners. Will XLM Price Respond? For investors asking whether XLM will respond, the market has so far treated the integration drumbeat as a “show-me” story. As of September 16, XLM trades near $0.379. XLM remains capped by mid-summer high at $0.52 that bulls will argue require either marquee partner go-lives, visible PYUSD settlement flows, or a broader macro driven rally for the entire crypto market. Crypto analyst Crypto Patel (@CryptoPatel) shared via X on September 15: “Demand zone tested – XLM bulls ready to charge. Why this setup? Price retracing into a bullish Orderflow Zone → demand area in play. Strong rejection expected near current support. Previous week’s high at 0.4143 serving as liquidity magnet. 4H Market Structure remains bullish, supporting upside continuation.” At press time, XLM traded at $0.378. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
A new market-cap–based Elliott Wave study from independent chartist Quantum Ascend (@quantum_ascend) argues that Stellar’s native token XLM is positioned for a fifth-wave advance that could lift its valuation roughly 5x from here. In a video published on September 10, the analyst says he prefers to model market cap rather than the dollar price because XLM’s supply dynamics have periodically distorted spot-price returns. Stellar (XLM) Set To Explode 400% “Looking at this… the USD price is only up 12,000% while the market cap chart [is] up 52,000%. So… there is some kind of inflationary pressure on the asset… Stellar, we have to use the market cap chart to measure out exactly where the price is gonna go,” he said, before mapping Fibonacci extensions on the monthly and weekly time frames. Related Reading: XLM Battles $0.45 Resistance Again: Is This the Breakout That Finally Sparks a Run to $1? From a cycle that he dates to May 2016, the analyst counts five waves up into the January 2018 peak, five down into March 2020, and then a new, ongoing motive structure that has already printed waves one through four, with wave four “finished in April of this year.” He highlights an “88% week” in July that he interprets as part of the transition into the terminal wave. The crux of his call comes from overlapping Fibonacci projections: measuring the third-to-fourth-wave drawdown and the larger 2021 range, he finds confluence near the 3.618 extension, which places XLM’s fully diluted valuation zone between roughly $60 billion and $71 billion. “My primary there is going to be $60 billion on the market cap… could see a throw over there to that $71 [billion] as well,” he said. Translating capitalization into a notional price path, Quantum Ascend frames a primary price objective around $1.96 per XLM—with a more aggressive extension near $2.28—while emphasizing adherence to Elliott Wave proportionality: “We’re looking at 400% or a 5X… everyone’s going to be screaming for $2; it’s going to end up at like $1.96… another reason that makes sense is that the third wave cannot be the shortest… I feel really good about that target right there.” The analyst also notes that a rapid, internally impulsive sub-structure is plausible for the fifth wave (“could see five waves in this fifth wave here pretty quick”), given the asset’s history of condensed moves. As of September 11, 2025, XLM changes hands around $0.386 with a market capitalization near $12.28 billion, per CoinMarketCap. A move to the analyst’s $60 billion primary target would imply an appreciation on the order of ~4.9x from today’s valuation, with the precise dollar price contingent on circulating-supply conditions at the time of arrival. Related Reading: Stellar (XLM) Turns Bullish, Can the $0.386 Wall Finally Break? Supply mechanics are a key backdrop to his market-cap emphasis. In November 2019, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) reduced total XLM supply to ~50 billion via a 55 billion token burn; since then, no new lumens are created at the protocol level, although circulating supply has continued to evolve as SDF distributes treasury holdings over time. This helps explain why long-horizon market-cap curves can diverge from simple price charts, particularly when comparing epochs with different circulating float. If realized, a primary target near $1.96 would set a new all-time high for XLM, exceeding the $0.938 peak recorded on January 4, 2018. That historical marker is relevant because, in Elliott terms, structurally new highs often validate the completion of a cycle’s terminal wave—though the analyst himself ties confirmation to the unfolding of the internal wave structure rather than to a single price print. To be sure, Elliott counting and Fibonacci confluence are interpretive frameworks, not certainties. Macro liquidity, the path of Bitcoin dominance, and idiosyncratic issuance/distribution by large holders can all alter trajectories and timing. Still, for believers in cycle symmetry, Quantum Ascend’s case is straightforward: a high-time-timeframe fifth wave for XLM, projected at roughly $60 billion in market cap, equating to about a 400% rally from current levels—“just shy of $2” on price. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Stellar (XLM) has finally broken its silence with a fresh bullish signal, sparking renewed optimism in the altcoin market. After weeks of sideways trading, the SuperTrend indicator has turned bullish for the first time since late August, according to trader Ali (@ali_charts). Related Reading: This Bitcoin Cycle Changes Everything, Real Vision Analyst Explains Why XLM now faces a decisive test at the $0.386 resistance, a level where sellers have repeatedly pushed back in recent weeks. The bullish reversal came as XLM established support at $0.363, creating a stronger floor for accumulation. With volume steadily increasing around this zone, traders are treating the move as more than just a temporary bounce. If momentum holds, XLM could unlock a major upside move that shifts market sentiment. What’s Fueling Stellar’s Momentum? The broader crypto market’s recent stabilization has provided a healthy backdrop for altcoins like Stellar (XLM) to regain traction. Hidden accumulation patterns within key demand zones suggest larger wallets are quietly entering the market, strengthening the bullish case. On the technical front, the MACD has turned positive, while XLM’s RSI remains neutral at 48, leaving room for further gains without hitting overbought territory. Analysts note that a clean break above $0.386 could quickly open the door to higher targets at $0.390 and $0.400, with medium-term forecasts eyeing $0.45–$0.48 by October 2025. Institutional traders are also watching the $0.43 resistance closely. A confirmed breakout above this level could ignite stronger momentum, potentially pushing XLM into a sustained rally toward its 52-week high near $0.50. Bullish and Bearish Scenarios Ahead If Stellar manages to break and hold above $0.386, short-term targets sit at $0.41–$0.42, with a stronger push toward $0.45–$0.48 likely in the next 4–6 weeks. XLM's price trends to the upside on the daily chart. Source: XLMUSD on Tradingview However, failure at resistance could send XLM back to retest support between $0.38 and $0.383, with a deeper drop toward $0.37 possible if sellers regain control. For now, XLM trades at $0.384 with a 3.5% intraday gain, reflecting cautious optimism. Traders are closely monitoring volume expansion and momentum indicators as confirmation signals. Related Reading: Ethereum Price At Risk Of Crash To $4,000, Is A New ATH Still Possible? With accumulation patterns aligning and market conditions stabilizing, Stellar’s next breakout attempt could decide whether this rally has lasting strength. Cover image from ChatGPT, XLMUSD chart from Tradingview
Stellar (XLM) is fast approaching a major milestone as the network closes in on 10 million accounts, fueled by a surge of institutional adoption. Current figures show 9.69 million active wallets, with an impressive 5,000-6,000 new addresses joining daily. Related Reading: XRP’s Biggest Doubter Just Dropped Close To $5 Price Bomb — Here’s Why This growth reflects more than retail speculation as it signals meaningful enterprise adoption in payments, tokenized deposits, and cross-border transactions. Unlike different hyped assets, Stellar has quietly built its reputation as a trusted blockchain solution. The network’s focus on compliance and financial-grade use cases is drawing banks, fintech firms, and remittance providers. With over $150 million in total value locked and consistent wallet creation, Stellar is showing signs of steady, sustainable growth that could lay the groundwork for a major price rally. Why Institutions Are Going Big on Stellar Institutional money is playing a key role in Stellar’s momentum. From partnerships with MoneyGram and Circle to recent pilots with central banks and fintechs like VersaBank, XLM is becoming a practical tool for global finance. VersaBank, for example, has begun testing tokenized deposits (USDVB) on Stellar alongside Ethereum and Algorand, mirroring confidence in Stellar’s scalability and compliance. This steady inflow of enterprise adoption is critical. Unlike retail-driven spikes, institutional backing provides consistent liquidity and long-term confidence. Analysts suggest that the growth of network growth and enterprise demand could act as the spark for XLM’s next breakout, especially if it pushes past psychological resistance at $0.50. XLM Price Forecast: $0.48 to $0.57 in Sight Currently Stellar trades around $0.38, hovering near its key support levels. Technical indicators suggest the cryptocurrency is preparing for a bullish reversal. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) sits in neutral territory, while narrowing MACD patterns hint at fading bearish momentum. XLM's price moving sideways on the daily chart. Source: XLMUSD on Tradingview Analysts project short-term targets between $0.42 and $0.44, with a medium-term breakout toward $0.48–$0.57 by late September. If XLM clears resistance at $0.50, institutional demand could push the price higher, with some models pointing to the $0.60–$0.77 range as the next major battleground. Related Reading: Analyst Says XRP Price Is Set To Hit $4 If It Breaks This Resistance Line However, failure to hold above $0.37 could expose Stellar to a deeper pullback toward $0.29. For now, the bullish case outweighs the bearish scenario, and with Stellar nearing 10 million accounts, many traders see this as a defining moment for XLM’s long-term trajectory. Cover image from ChatGPT, XLMUSD chart from Tradingview