Stellar Lumens (XLM Coin) Could Post the Biggest Next Cryptocurrency Bull Run Gains

Stellar Bull Run Might be Next

Ripple has had a spectacular couple weeks. Though the end of the seven-day streak may have seen a slight downturn in the overall gains made by the cryptocurrency, XRP is still up an astonishing 93% at the time of writing this.

This should be relatively unsurprising, considering the bombshell news last week that Ripple’s xRapid platform would likely be rolled out to participating banks within the next couple of months. What followed the announcement was an incredible bull run that had the currency—at one point—all the way up to six-month highs of around USD $0.70 per coin.

But the community is always looking forward to the next big bull run. Ripple’s price seems to have largely stagnated since the major boom earlier this week, hovering tamely at around 52 cents per unity at the time of writing. Other cryptocurrencies that might be tied to the price of XRP are the new target of mass speculation as consumers and investors in the growing crypto markets look to recoup some of their losses during this major crypto winter.

The main coin drawing the interest of speculating analysts in the crypto space is XLM, or Stellar. Stellar is a company that intends to do something largely similar to what Ripple wants to do; they are working to create a scalable ledger system to maximize efficiency in transacting between major banks in the traditional financial realm.

Analysts point towards the longstanding trend that XLM typically follows closely behind its competitor in price as evidence that it is likely to experience a similar bull run within the next few weeks.

The Stellar Advantage

According to some analysts and experts within he crypto space, Stellar has a clear advantage in marketability over Ripple. While Ripple is specifically tailored to work with traditional banks in the traditional finance sector, experts say that Stellar is uniquely suited to work with Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and Decentralized Applications (DApps). This dual functionality is one of the core components of the Stellar appeal, and it might just be the thing that allows the currency to stand out.

Stellar has also aggressively attempted to place itself in a spotlight beside Ethereum. Both platforms could be a major boon for the DApp and ICO creation process, though Stellar boasts an impressive list of unique benefits, including low transaction fees, premade decentralized exchanges, and atomic transaction capability.

While Stellar is clearly still a long way form taking Ethereum’s spot as the favorite among blockchain and cryptocurrency developers, the vast appeal of the technology is certainly one factor that could push XLM to new heights.

Stellar and Regulation

For all cryptocurrencies, regulation is a major concern. Stellar seems to have a relatively close lock on the regulatory efforts by governing bodies within its jurisdiction. While Ripple has been forced to ward off numerous attempted lawsuits from mad investors who had lost money investing in their token, the Stellar Foundation has kept its nose relatively clean—and out of the court room.

While this does not necessarily mean that the currency does not have to worry about regulatory action in the coming months and years, the lack of clear offense from litigators is a positive sign for the future of the currency in a legal light.

Upcoming Updates

Stellar’s team is also notorious for coming out with updates to their platform relatively frequently. In this last quarter of 2018, the development team for the Stellar Foundation has released information on at least three major updates to be added to the long list of functions on the network.

First, Stellar’s developers are working to catch up to other cryptos on the market with the implementation of state channels. Under a state channel, users are able to execute their own transactions without having to do them on the actual Stellar blockchain. This is typically used when the payments being settled are not traditional forms of transactions.

Perhaps more exciting for the tech-oriented professionals on the blockchain, Stellar is also planning to implement a beta for its new lightning network. The lightning network is a distributed ledger solution which allows for much quicker and more efficient transactions to occur at higher volume. In theory, the lightning network could easily make the Stellar blockchain significantly more efficient than it already is.

Interestingly enough, the new updates will also feature the live, non-beta version of the Stellar Lightning Network. This is relatively surprising, considering that many cryptocurrency updates spend months or even years in their testing phase before hitting the true network. But Stellar is going hard on their development process, and the team has promised a live Stellar Lightning Network by December 1^st of 2018.

Bull Run Ahead?

With everything coming out of the Stellar team, it should come as no surprise that some analysts are predicting a massive bull run before the end of this year. If XLM really does plan to continued to follow closely behind XRP, it is only a matter of time.