Created by Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb, the Stellar network first appeared in 2014 as a means of making cheap cross-border transactions with both fiat and digital currencies. The native tokens of the network, Stellar Lumens (XLM), are used as the fuel for transactions. During Stellar’s journey to where it is today, there have been changes to the economic functions of its XLM token – and some very exciting price movements.

If you want to know why then you’re in the right place. We’ve compiled everything you need in order to get a better understanding of the intricacies of Stellar price, as well as the factors that influence it.

Stellar Price History

Stellar (XLM) appeared on the scene in 2014 and began trading at around a quarter of a cent. Although Stellar price briefly reached twice that amount at the end of 2014, it continued oscillating below $0.01 for the next three years without making any major gains.

The first significant price movement for XLM came in May 2017, when its price shot up by more than 900% in a week to reach around $0.05. XLM quickly crashed back down, momentarily dipping below $0.01 again in September – but this was followed by an even greater surge at the end of the year.

On 28 November, Stellar’s market cap surpassed $1 billion for the first time. In January 2018, the price of XLM rallied from $0.06 to its all-time high of $0.87. This gave Stellar a market cap of over $15.5 billion, representing gains of almost 1,400%.

These highs were then followed by another crash, seeing XLM drop by 80% over the next two months. 2018 remained relatively flat after this, and at the start of 2019, XLM was trading at around $0.11. 2019 didn’t bring any major upward shifts, either – XLM price reached $0.14 at the end of May but had fallen below $0.05 by the end of the year.

2020 was the next year of note for Stellar. After dropping 37% in a single day in March, XLM recovered to over $0.10 in August. There was another less severe drop at the start of September before the price really took off towards the end of November. For the rest of the year – and into 2021 – XLM made repeated upsurges followed by short periods of consolidation. In February 2021, the price of XLM reached $0.55 after an increase of over 310% since the start of the year.

Analyzing Stellar Price History

Like many cryptocurrencies, XLM price follows what’s known as a ‘boom-and-bust’ cycle. This is a pattern where growing excitement causes a spike in interest and a sudden explosive surge in price, at which point doubt and disillusionment set in – resulting in an equally sudden crash.

The overall price chart for Stellar (XLM) shows a familiar pattern consisting of two large spikes – one at the end of 2017/start of 2018 and one at the end of 2020 continuing into 2021 – with comparatively little movement otherwise. This is because it has followed similar price movements to many other cryptocurrencies which made impressive gains on the back of the hype surrounding Bitcoin’s 2017/18 and 2020/21 bull runs.

Stellar failed to make any significant gains in the three years before the 2017 rally. One possible factor in this is the destabilizing effect felt by the crypto markets following the bankruptcy in 2014 of the Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, which was also founded by Jed McCaleb.

In addition to the broader crypto market rally, XLM’s late 2017 surge may also have been helped by the October 2017 announcement that IBM and KlickEx had partnered with Stellar in order to facilitate cross-border transactions between banks in the South Pacific region.

The crash that followed wasn’t unexpected, as such a sharp increase would have been very difficult to sustain. Also, at this point, the XLM supply was subject to a 1% annual inflation rate – so it didn’t have scarcity as a factor to help drive price.

In October 2019, the Stellar community voted to end inflation, and the following month about 55 billion XLM (representing more than half of the total supply) were burned. This didn’t have a very big impact on price, however, as the tokens burned weren’t yet a part of the circulating supply.

In 2020, XLM was influenced by some of the movements in the wider crypto markets. The dramatic crash in March came as economies and borders were shutting down around the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was felt by the rest of the crypto economy and the entire stock market, which suffered the greatest single-day fall since 1987. The drop at the start of September was also common across the rest of the crypto market, as was the period of growth at the end of the year and into 2021 on the heels of Bitcoin’s latest bull run.

Factors Influencing The Price of Stellar (XLM)

The price of Stellar (XLM) is affected by many of the things you’d expect – news about Stellar, project developments, the flow of assets on exchanges, market sentiment, and shifts in the wider crypto markets and the economy as a whole.

As XLM now has a capped supply, it is not subject to inflation and debasement like fiat currencies and so its price may, in time, be driven by its scarcity.

XLM is needed to pay for transactions on the Stellar blockchain – a fee of 0.00001 XLM is incurred for each transaction – so its price will likely be affected by Stellar’s partnerships and expansion as every business, bank, and government that uses Stellar now and in the future will have to pay fees in XLM.

In order to deter bad actors from filling the Stellar ledger with spam, Stellar imposed a minimum balance of 1 XLM on each account. The number of Stellar accounts has been significantly increasing since 2018 and further adoption in the future is likely to have a positive impact on Stellar value.

Live Stellar Value and Market Cap

The live price of Stellar (XLM) varies from moment to moment as it’s dictated by the balance of buyers and sellers on exchanges, which is in constant flux. 

Given Stellar’s volatility, its live price can change by a large amount in a very short space of time. The market cap of Stellar is equal to the price of Stellar multiplied by the number of XLM in circulation.

Stellar Price FAQ

How is the price of Stellar calculated?

Stellar’s price at any given time is decided by the balance of supply and demand on exchanges. When more people are buying XLM than selling it, the price goes up, and when more are selling than buying, the price goes down.

Why is the price of Stellar different on different cryptocurrency exchanges?

Stellar’s price is based purely on trading as there is no standard global Stellar price, so no one knows what it is “supposed” to cost. The trading volume and liquidity are different for each exchange and those differences are what affect the price.

What will Stellar be worth in the future?

It’s impossible to make price predictions with any kind of certainty as a whole host of different factors could affect XLM’s future performance. Stellar is often seen as an alternative (or competitor) to Ripple, so it’s possible Ripple’s future success could have an inverse relationship on Stellar’s – if the majority of institutions decide to adopt one of them over the other. 

As XLM is required for all transactions on the Stellar blockchain, future partnerships and expansion efforts by the Stellar Foundation would likely have a positive effect on XLM price.

Conclusion

Although Stellar spent the first three years of its existence trading below $0.01, it has since had some exciting moments, especially during the 2017/18 and 2020/21 bull runs. Its journey to its current price hasn’t been smooth, having experienced a lot of volatility and a few surges and crashes along the way.

The price of Stellar has been influenced by new partnerships, the removal of its inflation rate, and movements and trends in the wider cryptocurrency market and global economy. Its current valuation is derived from the balance of supply and demand in the market and constantly changes.

If you want to get started with the most user-friendly trading experience on the market, register with Kriptomat today to begin your journey into the world of Stellar and cryptocurrencies!