Usman Salis
Stellar (XLM) just delivered a knockout punch to XRP this week, surging 70% to $0.43 while absolutely crushing it with a 45% breakout in the XLM/XRP pair. This is the biggest move we've seen between these two tokens in nearly a year.
Something wild happened in crypto this week. Stellar (XLM) came back to life in a big way — and it did so at XRP's expense. The XLM/XRP chart, which has been boring traders to death for months, suddenly printed its biggest weekly candle in almost a year.
We're talking about XLM jumping nearly 45% against XRP, climbing from 0.107 to 0.154 in just a few days. That's not something you see often with this pair, especially considering how tightly they've traded historically. The move showed up in dollar terms too, with XLM surging over 70% on the week and clearing multiple resistance levels that had been capping price action since Q1.
XLM Price Finally Breaks Free From XRP's Shadow
Here's the thing about the XLM/XRP pair — it's usually overlooked and mostly goes down or sideways for months at a time. But this week's breakout flipped the script completely. After grinding lower for most of the year, the pair finally found a bottom and reversed with serious volume.
XRP still put in a solid performance, up about 23% to $2.78, but it clearly wasn't the main play this time around. For once, Stellar stepped out of XRP's shadow and reminded everyone why it deserves attention.
There's some backstory here that matters. Both XRP and XLM were co-created by Jed McCaleb, but they've evolved into very different beasts. XRP is tightly tied to Ripple and enterprise money flows, while Stellar leans more toward open financial access and person-to-person transfers. That divergence has made the XLM/XRP ratio a sort of market sentiment tracker for how each ecosystem gets valued.
What This XLM Price Breakout Really Means
This kind of setup is exactly what rotational traders live for — compressed structure, long base building, and then a clean breakout with volume. The technical picture couldn't be more textbook if you tried.
Is this a genuine trend shift? Too early to call definitively. But the momentum is real, and the volume behind this move suggests there's actual conviction, not just algorithmic noise. XLM had been playing second fiddle to XRP for so long that many traders had written it off as the perpetual underperformer.
What's clear is that both tokens are hot right now and getting serious attention. The combined strength suggests the broader payments crypto sector is having a moment, which could provide additional fuel for XLM's price action going forward.
The big question now is whether Stellar can hold onto these gains or if we'll see the usual crypto volatility drag it back down. For now though, XLM has definitely made its point — it's not just "XRP's little brother" anymore.
Usman Salis
