The price of Stellar (XLM) has exploded, following Ripple's victory against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in court this week.
As soon as the news of Ripple's court win broke on Thursday this week, XRP started a monumental rise to more than twice its initial value (about $0.45 to $0.96) as investors raked in massive profit.
In an interesting turn of events, it turns out that XLM followed suit.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, XLM has risen by more than 50% from a low of $0.096 to almost $0.19 – barely inches from $0.2.
CoinMarketCap data also shows that at the time of writing, XLM is outperforming Ethereum itself by 41%, and is beating Bitcoin even more soundly by 46%.
Let us venture further into the news, and figure out what exactly is going on (or more accurately, what went on) with XLM.
CoinMarketCap data shows that Stellar's price increase sparked a massive amount of interest from investors, large and small.
As it stands, XLM's trading volume rose, by 3348.7% in the after hours of the price rise.
This means that the trading activity on this cryptocurrency shot up by nearly 35 times its original value from Thursday.
As it stands, XLM reached a 14-month high. However, the market blues which came in the form of BTC consolidation and larger market resistance halted XLM's price growth around the $0.13 mark where the altcoin traded at press time.
Stellar's price increase also generated a significant increase in investor activity, resulting in extraordinarily high levels of involvement in the XLM market.
And as it stands, XLM has increased its market cap by a very impressive $1.3 billion in just one day.
Stellar's price explosion can be credited, in part to its status as a major XRP competitor, and as a possible component for the FedNow Payment System's blockchain.
FedNow, the Federal Reserve's quick payments service, is looking for a way to blend traditional banking with DeFi (something Ripple and XRP are also trying their hands on).
XRP's victory over the SEC in court will open the gateway for massive competition between both payment systems.
And as far as the world of blockchains goes, with competition comes rapid development. And with development, comes massive price increases.
If Stellar ends up being chosen as the blockchain facilitator for FedNow's Payment System, this will be the start of XLM's adoption and use, as well as a corresponding price increase to match.
Because of this, XLM is now poised more than ever, to fully compete with XRP and grow further in price as the days go by.
The price of XLM has retraced its steps backwards since its close shave with $0.2.
As we have established earlier, the buyers trooped in, buying XLM by several orders of magnitude from the day before.
However, as the chart above indicates, the $0.186 resistance is a strong one, and the buyers might need to do better than they already have, to break through and claim $0.2.
Here are some reasons why a consolidation or correction may be due:
Consider the chart illustrated above:
As you can see, the candlesticks representing Thursday and Friday have gone far above the upper Bollinger band.
The price of the cryptocurrency has to return inside the Bollinger band containment, as a way to balance things out.
This works in favour of a possible price reversal, or a consolidation at best.
The RSI also supports the Bollinger bands' verdict. It is currently overbought (sitting at 72.37 at press time), indicating that the market may need some time to cool off before we see any kind of bullishness.
What is the best bet for any traders or investors seeking advice?
Wait for a pullback or a consolidation at best.
In the event of a consolidation, XLM may range for a while, somewhere around $0.13, before making any attempt to resume further upwards.
And in the event of a pullback, traders should expect a price reversal to the $0.1 – $0.09 zones at least.
Despite XLM's exponential surge on Thursday this week, the cryptocurrency still looks slightly bearish from the weekly perspective From where things stand, XLM has to close above the $0.13 level with a weekly candle.
This means that the performance of the bulls this week will determine what happens over the next few weeks.
If the cryptocurrency can successfully close above $0.13 this week, all the bulls need to do is apply some more pressure and push the price of XLM back into a retest of the $0.196 zone.
A clean break and close above $0.196 would leave $0.2262 and higher, ripe for the taking.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.