Stellar XLM Climbs 1.5% as Protocol 24 Upgrade Nears Activation

The native token of the Stellar network, Stellar (XLM), improved by 1.5% to trade at $0.328, defying a small-time market downturn in which the total crypto capitalisation was down by 0.5% to 3.82 trillion. This minor increase is after a turbulent week, where XLM recovered after falling to a low of $0.314 as part of a bigger sector panic in connection with the U.S. fiscal wrangles.

With Bitcoin at $112,800 (down 0.8) and Ethereum at 4,090 (flat), the performance of Stellar clearly points to its emphasis on practical use, especially in cross-border payment and tokenised assets. The prospective Protocol 24 upgrade is viewed as an enhancer by the traders, who think it could trigger new heights in an annual that has already witnessed XLM rise by 226%.

The cryptocurrency ecosystem is not in a bad state, despite the massive weekend liquidations of more than $15 billion, and Stellar is resilient. The buzz around the social sentiment is high because of their low-fee remittances and new DeFi integrations, which make XLM the link between the old world and the blockchain.

As trading volume hit a high of 50 per cent to $245 million, institutional participation, which has been driven by the recent launch of ETFs, is an indication of increased confidence.

Upgrade Protocol 24: Bug Fixes and Scalability Boost Ahead

The most prestigious event of Stellar today is the Protocol 24 upgrade, a mainnet vote of which will take place at 1700 UTC. It is based on stable releases on October 20, a testnet launch yesterday, and fixes the most severe Protocol 23 bugs, such as archival inconsistencies in states and eviction of the transaction queue.

Stellar Core, Horizon, or RPC node developers are encouraged to upgrade their systems through Docker pulls from the official registry and maintain compatibility. The upgrade incorporates the upgrades to Soroban, the smart contract platform of Stellar, with the aim of 5,000 transactions per second (TPS) of concurrent processing and optimised calls between cross-contracts. It also optimises integrated asset event monitoring, reducing the expenditure of DeFi protocols.

Validators have gone out on a campaign supporting the vote, and initial polls have indicated a 95 per cent chance of approval. There should be an easier real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation post-upgrade, such as Franklin Templeton’s on-chain money market fund, already on-chain, and already locked up $150 million in yields.

This development stands upon the September release of Protocol 23, which determined Soroban on enterprise applications. The fact that Stellar is centred on the interoperability aspect, i.e. connecting fiat gateways through anchors, places it in a unique position to globally pay out, with Mexico to Nigeria as examples, where mobile-first wallets can be used to do instant stablecoin swaps without any banks.

RWA Feeds and Institutional Inflows: Dynamic Adoption

The RWA ecosystem at Stellar is becoming hot. RWA Feeds The RWA Feeds, which are live on mainnet since October 10, provide oracle pricing on tokenised Treasuries and collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) through Centrifuge.

This supports security on assets producing an output, and the amount of 3 billion dollars is aimed at the end of the year. Sixty-five per cent of Fiat to Crypto Ramps Anchors make it easier to transfer fiat to crypto, and vice versa, with a single transfer risking zero fees, including WhatsApp wallets, which will also appreciate remittances in the trillions per year.

The institutional momentum began to pick up as WisdomTree formally launched its physically backed XLM ETF (XLMW) on October 16, both on the Swiss SIX and Euronext. It has regulated exposure at a fee of 0.50 per cent, which attracted inflows of $25 million in the first week.

This comes after the addition to the S&P index and repeats Peter Brandt, who has gone bullish on XLM, in addition to XRP and ETH. The initial evidence indicates 87 per cent weekly rallies in specific timeframes, and open interest of $140 million is arousing volatility, but a great level of buyers are interested.

On-chain indicators are indicative of the hype: Daily transactions have soared to 2.5 million (an increase of 12 per cent per week), and active addresses have increased 8 per cent to 4.1 million. TVL in Soroban DeFi protocols surged 15 per cent to $450 million as remittance dApps and CBDC pilot projects with Mastercard.

Technical Charts: Potential Signal Breakout

The price movement of XLM is an inverted head-and-shoulder, and its support level is at 0.30. The token trades above the 50-day EMA ($0.305) and 100-day EMA ($0.295), with the levels of resistance being at 0.345.

The 52 of RSI represents a neutral momentum value, whereas the volume double-up indicates capitulation bottoming out. A successful Protocol 24 would run the 20% leg to $0.40 according to the fractal analysis that reflects the recovery of 2024.

Bears cite a 31.5% fall starting in 2025 peaks ($0.63) linked to the weakness of the altcoins and dominance of Bitcoin at 57 per cent. However, the position of stability at 0.32, close to annual averages, reflects utility rather than hype. The exchange flows show that a total of 500 million XLM was accumulated by whales last week due to the scalability of the RWA.

Ecosystem Leadership Shakeup and Global Expansion

New staff members were introduced by Stellar Development Foundation (SDF): Jose Fernandez da Ponte became the President and Chief Growth Officer, and Jason Karsh became the CMO, to increase the reach in new markets. What empowers partnerships is the fintech pedigree of Santander CEO Da Ponte, and Karsh aims at developer onboarding, where 1,800 actives each month.

Such projects as the launch of Authentic-Payment in Stellar simplify B2B services, and the rebranding of the Lumen Report focuses on the AI-blockchain fusion of news and trends. Stellar can build on the advantage of cross-border pilots, converting fiat to stablecoins in a matter of seconds, in Africa and Latin America: trillions of remittances flowing to decentralised rails.

Price Projections: $0.50 at the Year-End?

Analysts are split, though they are bullish. CoinCodex predicts that in the month of October, we will have highs of 0.311, and the RSI shows 33, which is an oversold rebound. Changelly foresees $0.345 November peaks, but CryptoNews values ETF tailwinds at $0.50 year-end. In the long term, 2030 expectations are between 1-1.50, provided that the RWA TVL is at 10 billion.

Such risks might be macro pressures, such as Fed pauses and trade tariffs, which will put it to the test at $0.28. Futures are not greedy, as shown by the Crypto Fear & Greed Index at 34 (“fear”) with liquidations of 120 million, predominantly of shorts.

Hype and Future of Community

X chat goes viral: Threads lauds XLM as a source of Global South cashflow, and anchor tech and Soroban reposts are doing well. The viral posts are cautious about the underestimation of utility and warn about the possibility of $1, a prediction that is true with 0.30. There is ongoing controversy between XLM and XRP in the payments industry, and the ethos of open-source by Stellar attracts followers.

With Protocol 24 voting today, Stellar is at an inflexion: Upgrades, RWAs, and leadership are signs of maturity. With a hype-tired market, the cashless XLM grind wiring the unbanked could be worth much more. Observe the watch $0.345; this could be the beginning of a new chapter of Stellar.