Saad Ullah
Stellar (XLM) just delivered a massive 63% weekly surge, completely outpacing XRP's impressive gains and claiming the top spot among major cryptocurrencies. The token now sits at a $15.6 billion market cap, eyeing the top 10.
While everyone's been talking about XRP hitting a new all-time high of $3.65, there's another coin that's been quietly crushing it even harder. Stellar (XLM), created by Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb, just posted an absolutely insane 63% gain over the past week, making XRP's 39% rally look pretty tame by comparison.
The numbers don't lie – XLM is currently the best-performing token in CoinGecko's top 100 on a weekly basis. Even though XRP grabbed headlines with its new peak, it's not even in the top 5 weekly performers. That's saying something when you've got Bonk (BONK) up 52%, Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) climbing 45%, and both Hedera (HBAR) and Algorand (ALGO) posting over 40% gains.
XLM Price Connection to XRP Revealed
Here's where it gets interesting – XLM has historically tracked XRP's price movements pretty closely, and there's a good reason for that. Since Jed McCaleb was Ripple's co-founder before he left to create Stellar, investors often lump these two tokens together in their heads.
Ripple's current CTO David Schwartz has even admitted he has "no idea" what drives XRP's price action specifically, but he thinks people might just mentally group XLM and XRP together because of their shared history. That connection has worked out pretty well for XLM holders this week.
Stellar (XLM) Price Eyes Top 10 Comeback
With its latest surge, XLM is now making a serious play for the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. The token briefly held a top 10 spot back in early 2021, but getting back there won't be easy. XLM would need to more than double its current $15.6 billion market cap to knock out competitors like Tron (TRX) and Cardano (ADA).
Still, if this rally keeps going, we might see XLM back in the big leagues sooner than expected. The crypto market's been on fire lately, and XLM's proving it can compete with the best of them.
Saad Ullah
