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XLM, the native token of the Stellar blockchain, is leading the predominantly sideways crypto markets on Monday, with a remarkable 10% price surge over the past 24 hours.
The latest spike took the price of XLM to a weekly high of $0.125, up nearly 5% on the week, according to data from CoinGecko.
With a market capitalization of $3.4 billion, XLM is currently the world’s 22nd largest cryptocurrency.
While it’s not immediately clear what caused the recent XLM spike, it follows a Twitter/X post on Saturday teasing that "something cool is dropping in 10 days."
The post urges readers to "gear up for a change that's got us all excited."
Something cool is dropping in 10 days.
Get ready to gear up for a change that's got us all excited. Stay curious 😎 pic.twitter.com/CgNzfzwqmc
— Stellar (@StellarOrg) September 2, 2023
Elsewhere in the market, Bitcoin (BTC) is struggling around the $26,000 level after dropping from the $28,000 mark last week. Ethereum (ETH), the market’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is changing hands at around $1,635.
Promoting efficient cross-border payments
The Stellar blockchain, known for its focus on facilitating cross-border payments and enabling the issuance of digital assets, aims to provide efficient and low-cost solutions for financial institutions and individuals looking to transfer value.
To achieve this goal, the Stellar Foundation has established a number of important partnerships, including the stablecoin issuer Circle and money transfer company MoneyGram International.
In August, the Stellar Foundation also became a minority investor in MoneyGram.
Last month, in a move aimed at making the platform more accessible to a wider range of users, the organization behind the development of XLM also announced that it had joined the Bytecode Alliance, an industry group promoting the development of WebAssembly (Wasm), the technology that allows developers to create high-performance applications that run in the browser.
The Bytecode Alliance was founded by several prominent technology companies and organizations, including Mozilla, Fastly, Red Hat, and Intel, among others.
Stellar first indicated it was moving to Wasm in April 2022, citing its “robust execution environment for smart contracts and a thriving ecosystem,” as well as the contribution to “building a safe, scalable system that promotes equitable access.”