Altcoins
IBM and Stellar (XLM) Enter Cross-Border Payments
The battle to reign supreme in the industry of cross-border payments on the blockchain is no longer the sole arena of Ripple. The long-held partnership between IBM and Stellar (XLM) has yielded another development in the form of a ‘near instant’ cross-border payment solution. The two firms have introduced what is known as IBM Blockchain World Wire.
The new service plans to revolutionize cross-border payments by:
“Clearing and settlement [of payments] with finality in near real-time. The solution uses digital assets to settle transactions — serving as an agreed-upon store of value exchanged between parties — as well as integrating payment instruction messages. It all means funds can now be transferred at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional correspondent banking.”
The IBM firm had been known to be running 9 Stellar nodes to settle cross-border transactions prior to the announcement of this new blockchain service. With SWIFT being the only payment solution for the last 50 years, Stellar and IBM enter a domain that needs to be revitalized by new more efficient technologies. The probability of the banking industry adopting blockchain 100% in the next 12 months is very high and both Ripple and Stellar are at the front-line of all the action.
With Bitcoin having set the pace when its ledger was launched in 2009, it exists for such a long time has proven that digital assets can offer tangible improvements to financial services by increasing security as well as making them more efficient.
What does IBM mean for XLM and XRP in the markets?
From a business and investing point of view, XLM suddenly has the upper hand. With XRP having many so-called ‘non-believers’ in the crypto-space, XLM provides an option to invest in a relatively cheap digital asset with the potential of pulling off massive gains in the long run.
XLM is currently valued at $0.20 due to the massive crypto market correction that just happened, and at the moment of writing this. Looking at XRP, it is valued at only 9 cents higher at $0.29. However, XLM has a lower circulating supply at 18.8 Billion whereas XRP has 39.65 Billion. This, in turn, means that with considerable demand once this new cross-border service is live, XLM could continue to gain in the markets.
However, IBM and Stellar have not definitely stated that XLM will be used to source instant liquidity for the cross-border transactions. They simply state that the service will use the Stellar protocol with a Liquidity provider on both ends. A block diagram has been provided below for easier visualization of this concept.
How IBM Blockchain World Wire works. Source, IBM.com
Over 1 Million Active XLM Accounts on Its Ledger
The XLM network recently marked a new milestone of over 1 Million XLM accounts on its ledger. According to the block explorer on the network, the current number of active accounts stands at 1,218,453 further signifying a growing interest to buy, own and use XLM as a preferred digital asset across the globe. A clearer visual representation of the increment in accounts on the network can be found below:
Current active XLM Accounts. Source, stellar.expert/explorer/public/
In conclusion, blockchain technology from both Ripple and Stellar will go on to revolutionize cross-border payments in the next 12 months. This means that we will be more connected globally in not only by using the internet but by near-instant cross-border payments that will make our daily lives more efficient.
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Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.
Image courtesy of Pexels
Solana price performance in recent times has been remarkable, surpassing Ripple and Binance Coin to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. The SOL price breached the critical level of $100 for the first time since April 2022 over the weekend to imbue optimism among investors. However, the altcoin has corrected by 7%, suggesting that the market is overheated. At the time of writing, the ‘Ethereum killer’ was trading slightly lower at $111.60.
SOL Outlook
Solana price has made a significant recovery over the past few weeks, climbing above the psychological level of $100. The altcoin has been one of the best-performing assets this year, extending its year-to-date gains to more than 1,025%, with more gains recorded in the past month alone. However, even with such growth, analysts have noted that Solana has a bleak chance of topping its ATH of $260.
The reason behind this is the increase in supply relative to its value. In November 2021, when the Solana price hit its all-time high of $260, its total market capitalization was around $78 billion. Despite the value of the crypto asset being less than half of what it was at the top, its market cap is currently hovering near $50 billion.
This has been brought about by the increase in the Solana supply by more than 100 million SOL over the past two years. According to some analysts, for the altcoin to retest $260, its…
Solana price has noted significant gains over the past few weeks, climbing to its highest level since April 2022. The ‘Ethereum Killer’ almost topped the crucial level of $100 on Friday, before pulling back slightly. The asset’s recent surge has catapulted Solana’s total market cap to $39.6 billion, ranking 5th after and above BNB and XRP, respectively. Solana has jumped by more than 22% in the past week and more than 80% in the month to date. At the time of writing, SOL price was trading 0.90% lower at $93.10.
Catalysts Behind SOL’s Rally
Solana price has been on a strong bull run over the past few days, rocketing to its highest level in 20 months as the network benefits from the substantial activity and strong interest in memecoins. The SOL token, the native digital asset of the high-performance blockchain platform Solana, has shown some serious strength over the past few weeks, outperforming all the altcoins in the market.
The recent surge in the Solana price has been linked to heightened on-chain activities on the Solana blockchain. Notably, the ongoing hype for the blockchain’s speedy transactions, cheap fees, and a lottery of meme coin issuances has buoyed SOL’s on-chain activity. Metrics have revealed that Solana has been the strongest draw among on-chain traders, with trading volumes and network fees outperforming Ethereum- the largest altcoin by market cap.
Cited figures provided by DeFi aggregator DeFiLlama…
Solana price has jumped more than 8% over the past week, breaching the important level of $60. At the time of writing, Solana was trading 3% higher at $61.07. The asset’s total market cap has climbed to $25.9 billion over the past week, ranking it the 6th largest cryptocurrency after XRP. The total volume of SOL traded over the last day has declined by 8%.
SOL’s Bullish Cues
Solana’s price has been among the best-performing cryptocurrencies this year amid continuous growth. The “Ethereum killer” has consistently impressed investors throughout the year on the back of a resurgence in bullishness, which saw SOL’s price climb more than 513% in the year to date. Institutional investors have also shared the bullish sentiment, making Solana their most preferred altcoin.
In the week ending November 24, Solana recorded inflows worth nearly $3.5 million, significantly more than the other altcoins’ inflows combined. The asset’s monthly inflows were higher at $40.2 million, lower than Ethereum’s $99.6 million inflows in the same period. Other altcoins, including Litecoin and Ethereum, noted significant outflows, making Solana nearly half of the home for DeFi. This implies that when it comes to institutions, Solana is currently the best-performing altcoin with the potential of a long-term rally much higher than other digital assets.
Notably, the Solana DeFi ecosystem accomplished a significant milestone earlier this week. Its Total Value Locked (TVL) hit a new yearly peak of over $655 million,…
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