Stellar (XLM) Spikes 8%; What’s Causing the Pump?

by
Will Heasman
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• XLM skyrockets in the wake of the President Xi-inspired pump.
• Lumens gains prominent listing on Coincheck.
• Stellar Foundation scraps inflation.

Ripple rival Stellar (XLM) is head and shoulders above the rest of the cryptocurrency market Friday, as it posts an 8% intraday increase.

The crypto markets have seen some bullish performance of late following the so-called Xi pump. Last week, China’s president, Xi Jinping, shilled blockchain technology, leading to a mass revival of bitcoin and the rest of the market. For the most part, the clamor of resurgence has cooled off. For Stellar’s Lumen, however, which witnessed only a modest recovery, things are only just starting to heat up.

Earlier in the day, XLM shot up by as much as 12%, knocking out a daily high of around $0.072, before easing down to $0.069.

Lumens Gets Listed on Japanese Exchange

As for a catalyst, it’s pretty much a case of taking your pick; this week has been pretty bullish for the Ripple alternative.

Perhaps the biggest instigator, witnessed Friday, was the addition of XLM to the Coincheck roster. The popular Japanese exchange announced that Lumens would be listed on its platform as soon as Nov. 12.

This is a reasonably notable development given that XLM is only the eleventh cryptocurrency to be listed by the exchange. It also marks the first crypto addition since Japan’s revitalized cryptocurrency regulation came into effect.

Koichiro Wada, vice president of Coincheck, tweeted about the importance of adding XLM (translated):

This addition of XLM is a big step for Japanese exchanges. We previously added MONA at Coincheck, but it has already been handled in Japan, and XLM will be the first in Japan! This is because the flow of currency listing has been completed throughout the country, and various currencies will be listed in the future!

Stellar Readjusts Protocol to Reduce inflation

It wasn’t just an extension of liquidity driving XLM this week. On Monday, a fundamental update of Stellar’s protocol saw the project put an end to inflation.

The plan to stop inflation has been in the works for over a year. Back in October 2018, Stellar co-founder Jed McCaleb proposed getting rid of inflation because it didn’t serve its “original purpose,” and it would end up dragging performance as more accounts pop up.

Before the recent upgrade, Stellar’s inflation was set at 1% per year and paid out weekly to accounts that garnered the most community votes. The original intention of inflation – encouraging internal spending – backfired with many hoarding the bonuses for themselves.

As a result of scraping inflation, XLM technically stands to gain much more going forward.

Travala Enables XLM as a Payment Method

Adding to the favorable developments around Stellar is recent news from Travala. The crypto-favorable hotel booking company announced Tuesday it had added XLM as a payment method.

Alongside Cardano (ADA), XLM joined the 20 cryptocurrencies currently accepted by the booking site. The addition also boasted a promo offer of 5% XLM back for all booking paid in the cryptocurrency until Nov. 7.