Stellar Lumen (XLM) price surged 120% in seven days after the Protocol 15 upgrade earlier this week
Stellar Lumen emerged as one of last week’s strongest-performing digital assets. XLM’s price jumped nearly 8% in the past 24 hours and climbed roughly 120% over the past seven days, making it the top performer among leading cryptocurrencies during that period.
Last week XLM traded around $0.08 per coin. The price then rose sharply, briefly surpassing $0.20 before pulling back to around $0.18 at the time of writing. This dramatic increase represents a roughly 120% gain in a single week, outperforming other major cryptocurrencies, including Ripple’s XRP, which gained about 115% over the same timeframe.
The rally pushed XLM back above the $0.20 level for the first time since September. The price move followed an announcement from the project’s developers earlier this week. The team confirmed that a new version of the Stellar protocol for public networks had been approved and deployed by validators.
The validator network implemented the Protocol 15 upgrade on November 23, introducing two new features: “Claimable Balances” and “Sponsored Reserves.” According to the developers, both features are intended to make it easier to build more user-friendly applications on Stellar. The team noted they had already observed these functions operating during testnet trials and expressed anticipation to see how developers will use them on the live network.
In addition to improving user experience, the new features are designed to protect the network from certain attack vectors, including so-called “farm attacks” and other methods malicious actors might use to exploit the blockchain.
For more than a year prior to this rally, Stellar underperformed relative to many major coins. XLM’s price lagged even as Bitcoin and other large-cap cryptocurrencies gained ground in recent weeks. The market turned around on November 21, when trading volume began to show signs of accumulation. Since then XLM has more than doubled in value and leads the top 100 coins by market capitalization in weekly gains.
XRP and XLM set the market trend
XRP and XLM stood out among cryptocurrencies this week. The connection is notable because Stellar was originally forked from XRP by Jed McCaleb and launched in July 2014. Stellar Lumen and XRP share a similar mission: to reduce the cost of cross-border payments using blockchain technology. Both assets gained more than 100% in the past week, outperforming Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and many other major cryptocurrencies during the same period.