Karla Barker 
Stellar’s XLM token has been having a solid week. It is up more than 25% over the past seven days, moving from $0.1534 on August 19 to around $0.1935 on August 25. The price move pushed its market cap to $6.69 billion. In the last 24 hours, the token saw about $250.88 million in traded volume.
XLM’s rise came as the broader crypto market gained. Total crypto market cap jumped by over $420 billion, from $2.286 trillion on August 18 to roughly $2.706 trillion at press time. But XLM’s move was especially tied to XRP. XRP rose about 46.65% in the same week and was trading at $1.46 at the time of writing.
Tokenization data picks up
One reason for the Stellar rally may have to do with the network’s role in real-world asset tokenization. According to RWA.xyz, the number of RWA holders on Stellar increased by 3.49% over the past 30 days, reaching 19,139 on Tuesday. The network’s Distributed Asset Value, which tracks RWA tokens using Stellar as a distribution layer, rose 8.2% in 30 days to about $3.29 billion.
Stablecoin holders on Stellar also grew. The network had 698,290 stablecoin holders at press time, up 2.56% in 30 days. Those numbers are not exactly explosive, but they show slow adoption gains. It’s probably not the only reason XLM moved so much this week, but it’s worth watching.
What’s next for XLM?
Crypto analyst Celal Kucucker thinks XLM could do much more. He expects the token to rally toward $2.50 in the current bull market. He also said a 15x move would not surprise him, and he described Stellar’s chart as the cleanest in the market. I’d take that with a grain of salt, but the point is that some traders see a lot of room above the current price.
After that, the macro outlook for XLM probably depends on how the broader crypto market holds up. If Bitcoin and XRP keep charging higher, XLM could follow. But adoption rates matter too. The latest tokenization figures are modest, so it’s still a question whether the network is picking up real long-term usage or just following the broader rally.
XLM is often mentioned as an XRP rival because both focus on cross-border payments. But this week, it acted more like a follower. The price pattern tracked XRP very closely, and the gains happened quickly. For now, the market seems happy to treat Stellar as a secondary bet on the same trend.