Bitcoin is holding strong above $118,000 as crypto prices soar this week, and Stellar (XLM) is showing no signs of slowing down as it grew by another 18% today, bringing its weekly gains to 86%. This makes it one of the biggest gainers from this week’s rally.
As it bridges traditional finance with blockchain technology, institutional interest in Stellar is growing. Let’s take a look at what has investors excited about Stellar, and how far its native token, XLM, can go this cycle.
The Combination of Stellar’s Institutional Backing and Upcoming Network Advancements Puts a Spotlight on XLM
Initially launched as an open-source blockchain network built to make cross-border payments quick and affordable, Stellar now provides the underlying infrastructure for tokenizing real-world assets (RWA) such as US Treasuries, bonds, and more.
Institutional adoption has recently become a major driver of Stellar’s growth. Franklin Templeton, a global investment firm, saw its tokenized holdings on the Stellar network grow by 3% over the past 30 days, reaching $446 million on July 11th.
Stellar could see a significant boost in adoption once its upcoming upgrade, Protocol 23, rolls out, as it is designed to boost its network’s speed, efficiency, and usability.
Bringing faster smart contract processing, lower fees, and unified asset tracking across the network, the upgrade could see developers looking to build scalable financial products flock to Stellar.
Scheduled for a mainnet vote on August 14, Protocol 23’s launch could position Stellar as a top contender for DeFi, RWA tokenization, and enterprise blockchain solutions. As the upgrade approaches, XLM, which is at the center of its ecosystem, is thriving this week.
Priced at $0.2367 on July 5th, XLM surged to $0.4004 on July 12th, bringing its market cap to $12.45 billion.
Besides benefiting from the bullish news surrounding the Stellar blockchain, XLM’s technical indicators suggest it is well-positioned to keep growing in the short term.
A Golden Cross formation has appeared as a result of XLM’s 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) of $0.263926 crossing over its 200-day SMA of $0.225073. This pattern often confirms that a token has the potential to achieve sustained short-term growth.
Additionally, traders are overwhelmingly confident that XLM will keep surging, as the token enjoys a 2.14 long/short ratio, which shows that only 31.87% of traders are shorting XLM.
Encouraged by XLM’s positive technical outlook, analyst Lucky believes the token is preparing for a move beyond the $0.63 mark, which could position it for a move to $1.
As altcoins like XLM soar, traders are hunting for low cap cryptocurrencies that can give the biggest gains amid the bullish market conditions. One token catching eyes is Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER), a presale project that seeks to expand the Bitcoin ecosystem through its upcoming Layer 2 network.
Bitcoin Hyper Seeks to Permanently Transform BTC With Its Layer 2 Solution: Next Altcoin to Explode?
Just as Stellar redefines what’s possible in DeFi and RWA tokenization, Bitcoin Hyper aims to introduce an ecosystem designed to enhance Bitcoin’s programmability and transaction speeds. The ambitious project has already attracted over $2.5 million in presale investments.
Bitcoin Hyper’s developers will leverage the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) technology to introduce high-speed dApps and scalable smart contracts to Bitcoin.
That means Bitcoin’s massive liquidity could soon pour into numerous DeFi protocols, NFTs, meme coins, and other projects that may emerge on Bitcoin Hyper’s ecosystem.
To make Bitcoin usable for microtransactions and payments, the project is also introducing a Layer 2 solution that will deliver significantly higher transaction speeds at a much lower cost than Bitcoin’s mainnet.
The conversion of BTC to wrapped BTC usable on the Layer 2 will be done via Bitcoin Hyper’s Canonical Bridge at a 1:1 rate.
Presale analyst Borch Crypto pointed out that holding HYPER, the project’s native token that currently costs $0.012225 each, will unlock several benefits for those using Bitcoin Hyper. These range from exclusive access to certain DeFi protocols and dApps to developer grants for builders.
The analyst expects Bitcoin Hyper to surge by up to 100x on launch, as its innovative architecture positions it to capture unprecedented demand within the Bitcoin ecosystem.