The Stellar price has been in a tight range as investors wait for the next catalyst. The XLM is trading at $0.3187, which is about 24% above the lowest level in October. The coin has a total market capitalization of more than $7.45 billion, making it the 25th biggest cryptocurrency in the world.
Why has XLM lagged?
In general, the XLM price has lagged that of its peer cryptocurrencies. For one, its price is still about 60% below its all-time high. In contrast, Bitcoin is only 22% below its all-time high. Also, Stellar is only 60% above its lowest level in July while Bitcoin has recovered by more than 70%.
It is not clear why the Stellar price has remained under pressure recently. Still, there are some key possible reasons.
First, investors have focused on some fast-rising cryptocurrency projects recently. Some of the best performers are Ethereum-killers like Avalanche, Hedera Hashgraph, Algorand, and Solana. These digital currencies have received more hype than Stellar. As such, the demand for Stellar has been relatively weak recently.
Second, the XLM price has lagged because of lack of new news from the developers. Historically, cryptocurrency prices tend to do well when the developers issue new updates to the market. The only recent new news about Stellar was that a stablecoin pegged to the Peru currency was built using Stellar’s technology.
Third, I believe that the Stellar lumens price has lagged because of lack of news about the rumoured merger with MoneyGram. A few months ago, it was reported that the Stellar Foundation has teamed with Advent to place a bid for MoneyGram, one of the biggest companies in money transfer.
The acquisition would make sense for Stellar, which service is in the remittances industry. It would also help it gain legitimacy globally. Still, no word has been said about the tie-up recently.
Stellar price prediction
The daily chart shows that the XLM price has been in a tight range recently. As a result, the price is trading along the 25-day and 50-day moving averages while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at the neutral level of 53. The price is also a few points below last month’s high of $0.4285.
Therefore, the outlook for the Stellar price is neutral with a bullish bias. The next key catalyst for the coin will be the price action of Bitcoin, which has rallied to above $50,000. If it keeps rallying, other stablecoins like Stellar will follow.
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