XLM Scores Biggest 24-Hour Surge Among Top 20 Cryptocurrencies, Posting Stellar Gains

Stellar’s native token, XLM, surged by 6% on Saturday to reach $0.3880, making it the strongest performer among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization over the past 24 hours.

The rally comes in the wake of PayPal’s announcement on June 11 that it intends to expand its U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), to the Stellar blockchain. The move is pending regulatory clearance from the New York State Department of Financial Services. Should it proceed, it would extend PYUSD’s availability beyond its current networks on Ethereum and Solana.

PayPal praised Stellar for its efficiency in delivering low-cost, rapid transactions and highlighted its practical use cases in global payments. The integration is expected to broaden PYUSD’s reach, enabling smoother payments, cross-border transfers, and financial tools like working capital and small business loans—areas where Stellar already has significant activity.

In a press release, PayPal pointed to Stellar’s global network infrastructure, which includes on- and off-ramps, connections to local payment systems, and widespread digital wallet integrations. This infrastructure could potentially help bring PYUSD access to over 170 countries. PayPal also underscored the benefits of PayFi, a developing digital finance solution that would allow businesses to tap into real-time capital flows in PYUSD on the Stellar network.

May Zabaneh, Vice President of Digital Currencies at PayPal, described the collaboration as a milestone in advancing blockchain’s role in cross-border payments. Denelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation, said the partnership could help accelerate stablecoin adoption in emerging markets and support small businesses globally.

PYUSD, issued by Paxos Trust Company, is fully backed by cash and cash-equivalent reserves and maintains a fixed redemption value of $1.00 per token.

Earlier this year, the Stellar Development Foundation released a short video featuring Ian Burrill, Senior Director of Crypto Engineering at PayPal. Burrill praised Stellar for its fast and low-cost operations and noted that expanding PYUSD to Stellar would help the stablecoin reach over 180 countries. He emphasized that giving merchants the ability to transact in PYUSD on Stellar would enable real-time payments and greater capital efficiency for businesses.

Technical Analysis

• Between July 11 at 17:00 UTC and July 12 at 16:00 UTC, XLM experienced notable price swings, trading in a $0.071 range—a fluctuation representing around 20.59% volatility. Prices moved between a low of $0.345 and a high of $0.416, according to data from CoinDesk Research.
• A sharp rally occurred around 01:00 UTC on July 12, as XLM spiked from $0.354 to $0.393 amid trading volumes of 551.38 million tokens—more than double the 24-hour average of 234.19 million—establishing support at the $0.354 level.
• The upward momentum carried the price to a session peak of $0.416 by 11:00 UTC before encountering resistance in the $0.400 to $0.403 range, where institutional profit-taking seemed to slow further gains.
• In the final hour of trading from 15:47 UTC to 16:46 UTC, XLM advanced 3.89%, rising from $0.37 to $0.39 and sustaining the bullish trend into the session’s close.
• The session’s most significant surge occurred between 16:03 and 16:08 UTC, when XLM climbed from $0.374 to $0.385 amid elevated trading volumes of 13.16 million and 17.14 million tokens—far exceeding the hourly average of 3.2 million.
• By the end of the session, XLM consolidated around $0.385 to $0.387, creating a solid support base as traders monitored resistance levels between $0.39 and $0.40 identified in broader technical analysis.