Tokenized RWA Market Crosses $50B as BlackRock BUIDL Hits $10B
Stellar XLM
Rank #21$0.148092▲ +3.25%(24h)▼ +2.40%(7d)
24h Low $0.14005924h High $0.148913
Market Cap
$4.96B
24h Volume
$92.13M
Circulating
33.53B XLM
All-Time High
$0.875563
▼ +83.10% from ATH
Stellar Price Chart
Key Metrics
Market Cap
$4.96B
Volume (24h)
$92.13M
Circulating Supply
33.53B XLM
Max Supply
N/A
Stellar Converter
Stellar Converter
XLM
$USD
1 XLM = $0.15
Stellar Historical Data
| All-Time High | $0.875563 (January 3, 2018) |
| All-Time Low | $0.000476 (March 5, 2015) |
Where to Buy Stellar
About Stellar (XLM)
What is Stellar?
Stellar (XLM) is an open-source payments network designed to move money the way email moves messages. Jed McCaleb (a co-founder of Mt. Gox and Ripple) and Joyce Kim launched it in 2014. The non-profit Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) maintains the protocol and reference clients. The native asset is the Lumen, ticker XLM, used to pay fees and act as a bridge currency between issued tokens.
The original design issued 100 billion Lumens. In November 2019 the community voted to burn half of the supply, capping it at 50 billion XLM, and inflation (which used to add 1% per year) was abolished at the same time. Roughly 30 billion XLM circulate today, with the SDF holding around 20 billion earmarked for ecosystem grants, partnerships, and developer programs.
Stellar price today
Stellar trades on most major venues against USD, USDT, EUR, and BTC. Live data on this page pulls from a multi-venue feed and refreshes every 60 seconds. The reference quote is a volume-weighted average across the deepest order books.
What tends to move XLM/USD on a given day:
- SDF treasury moves. The foundation publishes quarterly mandate updates; large grant unlocks or burn announcements show up in price.
- USDC-on-Stellar volume. Circle issues USDC natively on the network, and growth in that float feeds into XLM utility.
- Franklin Templeton BENJI flows. The tokenized money market fund settles on Stellar, so subscription and redemption activity is a tracked signal.
- Soroban TVL and contract counts. Smart-contract activity since the February 2024 mainnet is still early; meaningful jumps tend to lift sentiment.
- BTC correlation. Like most large caps, XLM moves with Bitcoin during macro risk-on and risk-off swings.
The numbers in the price card above are live. The analysis below uses the levels at page load.
Stellar Consensus Protocol: how XLM transactions confirm in seconds
Stellar does not use proof-of-work or proof-of-stake. It runs on the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), a federated Byzantine agreement model. Each node picks a list of other nodes it trusts (a quorum slice), and the network reaches agreement when those slices overlap enough to form a network-wide quorum. There is no mining and no staking reward.
In practice that means a Stellar transaction confirms in about 5 seconds and costs 100 stroops, which works out to 0.00001 XLM. That fee is fractions of a cent at any plausible XLM price, which is the main reason payment processors picked Stellar over chains where fees can spike during congestion.
The trade-off is that validator selection is permissionless but reputational. If the trusted node lists drift toward a small set of operators, the network becomes harder to fork but more centralised in practice. The SDF publishes a tier list of public validators and the conditions under which it would change its own quorum set.
Stellar partnerships: MoneyGram, Franklin Templeton, Circle
Stellar’s adoption story leans on a few real integrations rather than a long list of pilots.
- MoneyGram. Since 2022 MoneyGram users in supported corridors can cash out USDC sent over Stellar at MoneyGram retail locations. The product is called MoneyGram Access.
- Circle. USDC has been issued natively on Stellar since 2021. That puts a regulated dollar on the network for remittances and treasury operations.
- Franklin Templeton. The BENJI tokenized US government money market fund, the first US-registered fund to record transactions on a public blockchain, runs on Stellar.
- Anchors. Regulated entities (MoneyGram, Cowrie in Nigeria, Tempo in Europe) act as on-ramps and off-ramps, issuing tokenized fiat against their own banking rails.
IBM World Wire, an earlier flagship partnership announced in 2019, was wound down in 2021. Worth knowing if you read older coverage.
Soroban: smart contracts on Stellar
Stellar shipped Soroban, its smart-contract platform, on mainnet in February 2024. Contracts are written in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly, similar to the model used by Polkadot and NEAR. Soroban runs alongside the existing payments layer rather than replacing it, so a single account can hold issued assets and interact with contracts without changing wallets.
The Soroban ecosystem is early. Total value locked is small relative to mature L1s, and most live deployments are stablecoin DEXs, lending pilots, and tokenized real-world assets connected to the SDF’s grant programs. Whether Soroban gets a self-sustaining DeFi ring or stays a venue mainly for payments and tokenization is the open question for XLM holders this cycle.
How to buy Stellar (XLM)
XLM is one of the easier large-cap coins to acquire. Most regulated exchanges list it directly against fiat, so the path looks like this:
- Choose where to buy. Pick a regulated exchange with a deep XLM/USD or XLM/EUR book and reasonable withdrawal fees. The exchange ratings list the major options side by side.
- Pass identity checks. KYC takes around 10 minutes on most platforms. Have a government ID and a recent utility bill or bank statement ready.
- Add funds. SEPA and ACH bank transfers are cheapest and clear in 1 to 3 business days. Card deposits land instantly but skim 2 to 4%. Stablecoin transfers are fastest if you already hold USDC or USDT.
- Buy XLM. A market order fills now at the best available price; a limit order waits until the price hits the level you set. For larger tickets, splitting the order over a few hours reduces slippage.
- Move coins to a wallet. Lobstr, Freighter, and StellarTerm are the common Stellar-native wallets. Each Stellar account needs a 1 XLM minimum balance reserve to stay open, which the wallet will explain on first use.
For a sense of where prices may go from here, see the Stellar price forecast page, which covers technical levels and longer scenarios.
Stellar vs Ripple (XRP): two payment chains, two philosophies
Stellar and Ripple share a founder. Jed McCaleb co-founded Ripple, left after disagreements about direction, and started Stellar a year later. Both networks aim at cross-border payments, but they ended up in different places.
- Consensus. Stellar uses SCP, an open federated model where anyone can run a validator. Ripple uses RPCA on a Unique Node List that Ripple publishes; in practice it is a smaller, more curated validator set.
- Supply. XLM is capped at 50 billion after the 2019 burn, with no inflation. XRP has a 100 billion cap, with Ripple holding a large escrow that releases up to 1 billion XRP per month.
- Governance. Stellar is run by a non-profit foundation with public grant programs. Ripple is a venture-backed company with a commercial product (RippleNet, ODL) sold to financial institutions.
- Regulatory posture. Ripple spent years in litigation with the US SEC over whether XRP sales were unregistered securities. Stellar has not faced an equivalent enforcement action.
- Partner profile. Ripple targets banks and remittance corridors directly. Stellar leans on consumer payment integrations (MoneyGram), regulated stablecoins (USDC), and tokenized assets (BENJI).
Risks of holding Stellar
XLM has a clean technical record, but the holder still carries several specific risks worth pricing in.
- SDF concentration. The Stellar Development Foundation holds roughly 20 billion XLM, around 40% of the cap. Mandate changes or large grant unlocks can pressure the market.
- Adoption depth. The MoneyGram and Franklin Templeton deals are real but narrow. If USDC-on-Stellar migrates to faster L2s or BENJI moves to other chains, the utility case weakens.
- Soroban execution. Smart-contract chains live or die on developer mindshare. Soroban is competing with EVM, Solana VM, and Move ecosystems that already have years of tooling.
- Regulatory drift. Stablecoin and tokenized-fund rules are still being written in the US and EU. Rules that disadvantage public chains for regulated products would hit Stellar more than payment-agnostic L1s.
- Liquidity in tail markets. Outside USD and EUR pairs, XLM order books on smaller venues can be thin during sharp moves.
This page is information, not financial advice. Talk to someone licensed before allocating real capital.
Stellar price analysis
At the time of writing, Stellar (XLM) trades at $0.148092, with a 24-hour trading volume of $92.13M and a total market capitalization of $4.96B. The asset is currently ranked #21 among all tracked cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Over the last 24 hours, the XLM price has rose +3.25%. On the seven-day chart, Stellar has retraced +2.40%, showing mixed signals across the short and medium term. Short-term price swings are often amplified by liquidity conditions, news flow, and derivatives positioning, so traders should confirm signals across multiple indicators before acting.
Stellar's all-time high of $0.875563 was set on January 3, 2018. The current market price is +83.10% below that historical peak. Distance from the all-time high is a common reference point when evaluating long-term recoveries and identifying macro support or resistance levels.
How to buy Stellar
Buying Stellar (XLM) is straightforward once you know which exchange to use and which trading pair offers the best liquidity. The steps below describe the typical flow used by most investors today.
- Choose a reputable exchange. Pick a platform that lists XLM with deep liquidity, transparent fees, and strong security practices. Our top-rated exchanges guide compares the leading venues side-by-side.
- Create and verify your account.Complete the exchange's KYC process — most platforms require a government-issued ID and a short identity check. Verification is usually a one-time step that takes just a few minutes.
- Deposit funds. Fund your account with fiat currency via bank transfer, card, or a stablecoin like USDT or USDC. Stablecoin deposits typically offer the fastest settlement and lowest fees.
- Place a buy order. Navigate to the XLM/USD or XLM/USDT pair and either execute a market order for instant fills or set a limit order at your preferred entry price.
- Secure your XLM. For long-term holdings, consider moving your tokens to a non-custodial wallet — a hardware device for the highest security, or a reputable software wallet for frequent access.
You can also use the built-in Stellar converter above to estimate exactly how much XLM you would receive for a given amount in USD before placing an order.
Is Stellar a good investment?
Whether Stellar is a good investment depends on your goals, time horizon, and tolerance for volatility. Like all cryptocurrencies, XLM carries significant market risk — prices can rise or fall sharply in a single day, and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.
Potential strengths
- Ranked #21 by market cap with an established trading history and active exchange coverage.
- Transparent on-chain data: real-time supply, circulation metrics, and publicly auditable transactions.
- Ongoing ecosystem development and community engagement, as reflected in Smart Contract Platform, Real World Assets (RWA) sector activity.
Key risks to consider
- Volatility: 24-hour moves of 5–15% are common in crypto markets.
- Regulatory uncertainty: changes in policy across major jurisdictions can materially affect price and access.
- Liquidity and custody risk: not all exchanges are equally safe, and self-custody requires careful key management.
This page provides data and analysis for educational purposes only. It is not financial advice. Always do your own research, diversify, and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
FAQ
What is Stellar used for?
Stellar is built for payments. Most real-world usage falls into three buckets: cross-border remittances (MoneyGram cash-out for USDC), tokenized assets (Franklin Templeton’s BENJI money market fund), and on-chain stablecoin transfers, mainly USDC issued by Circle. With Soroban live since February 2024, smart-contract use cases like lending and DEXs are starting to appear, though the ecosystem is still small.
What is the difference between Stellar and Ripple?
Both networks were co-founded by Jed McCaleb and target cross-border payments, but they diverged. Stellar is run by a non-profit foundation, uses an open federated consensus model, and has a 50 billion XLM cap with no inflation since 2019. Ripple is a venture-backed company selling RippleNet and ODL to banks, runs on a curated validator list, and the XRP supply is capped at 100 billion with a monthly escrow release schedule.
What is Soroban?
Soroban is Stellar’s smart-contract platform. It launched on mainnet in February 2024. Contracts are written in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly, and they run alongside the existing Stellar payments layer rather than replacing it. The early ecosystem is focused on stablecoin DEXs, lending pilots, and tokenized real-world assets supported by SDF grants.
Can Stellar be staked?
No. Stellar does not use proof-of-stake, and there is no native staking reward for holding XLM. The Stellar Consensus Protocol relies on validator nodes that operators choose to trust, not on staked capital. Some exchanges advertise XLM "earn" or "rewards" products, but those are lending or promotional programs, not protocol-level staking, and they carry the platform’s own credit risk.
Is XLM a good investment?
XLM has a clear narrative (payments, USDC issuance, Franklin Templeton BENJI) and a clean technical record, but its all-time high near $0.93 was set in January 2018, and the November 2024 cycle peaked around $0.78. Whether it fits a portfolio depends on your view of stablecoin payment rails and your tolerance for drawdowns of 70% or more, which previous cycles have delivered. This is information, not advice.
What is the maximum supply of Stellar?
The maximum supply of XLM is 50 billion. The original design issued 100 billion Lumens, but the community voted in November 2019 to burn half the supply and abolish the previous 1% annual inflation. About 30 billion XLM are in circulation; the rest is held by the Stellar Development Foundation for ecosystem grants and partnerships.
Where can I buy Stellar?
XLM is listed on most regulated exchanges, including Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, Bitstamp, and Gemini, with direct USD and EUR pairs on several of them. After buying, you can hold the coins on the exchange or move them to a Stellar-native wallet such as Lobstr, Freighter, or StellarTerm. Each Stellar account requires a 1 XLM minimum balance reserve to stay active.
Is Stellar legal?
Stellar and XLM are legal in most major jurisdictions, including the US, the UK, the EU, Canada, Japan, and Australia. The network has not been the subject of an SEC enforcement action against the foundation, unlike XRP. Local rules on crypto trading, custody, and tax still apply, and a few countries restrict crypto access entirely.
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