Stellar Price Rises by 10% After USDC Heralds it as “Official Chain”

USDC is the second the largest US dollar-pegged stablecoin. It’s coming to Stellar. Did that just cause a price boom?

Good news for Stellar owners today, who through no effort of their own increased the value of their holdings by 10% in the past 24 hours. The value of a single Stellar, or XLM, is now $0.08.

The price hike could perhaps be attributed to Thursday’s announcement that USDC, the US dollar-pegged stablecoin led by Coinbase and Circle, will integrate with the Stellar blockchain at the start of next year.

Announcing Circle’s USDC support for Stellar across its suite of payments infrastructure APIs and business account products by Q1 2021 https://t.co/MrlQB4JTGA

— Circle (@circlepay) October 15, 2020

This makes the Stellar blockchain, which is powered by the eponymous cryptocurrency that just rose by 10%, a popular choice for businesses seeking to integrate USDC. USDC is the only major US dollar-pegged stablecoin supported by the Stellar blockchain.

USDC is the bigger fish; Its market cap is $2.7 billion. Stellar’s market cap is $1.6 billion. Stellar is the USDC’s third “official” blockchain alongside Ethereum and Algorand.

“The addition of USDC to Stellar will allow us to continue to expand our global reach in pursuit of this mission while opening up new avenues for growth and innovation for the developers and businesses building on the network,” said Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation, in a statement following Thursday’s announcement.

Trading volumes for XLM more than doubled in the past 24 hours. Yesterday, traders shifted $127 million worth of the cryptocurrency; today, the trading volume for Stellar in the past 24 hours is $274 billion.