Stellar Price

What Is Stellar?

Stellar is a blockchain network built to move money across borders cheaply and quickly. Its native coin is the lumen, which trades under the ticker XLM. Stellar's main pitch is that a bank, a payment app or a fintech company can issue a digital version of a dollar, euro or other asset on the network and send it anywhere in seconds for a fraction of a cent.

Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim started Stellar in 2014, with early funding from the payments company Stripe. The network is supported by the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), a nonprofit that funds development, holds a large share of the XLM supply and gives grants to companies building on Stellar. SDF says its mandate is to expand access to low-cost financial services. Stellar added smart contracts, through a system called Soroban, in 2024.

How Stellar Works

Stellar doesn't use mining or traditional staking. It runs on the Stellar Consensus Protocol, a design by Stanford professor David Mazières called federated Byzantine agreement. Each validator picks a set of other validators it trusts, and the network reaches agreement where those trusted sets overlap. A new ledger closes every five seconds or so.

Fees are tiny and are paid in XLM. Those fees go into a pool that no one can spend, which keeps spam transactions from flooding the network. Every account also has to hold a minimum balance of 1 XLM.

The supply story has changed over time. Stellar started with 100 billion XLM plus 1% yearly inflation. Validators voted to end inflation in October 2019, and in November 2019 SDF burned about 55.4 billion XLM from its own holdings. Total supply now sits near 50 billion, and no new lumens will ever be created.

What makes Stellar different is its focus on "anchors," businesses that hold real money and issue matching tokens on Stellar, so users can move into and out of local currency.

What People Use It For

Most Stellar activity involves stablecoins and other tokens issued on the network, with XLM paying the fees. USDC, Circle's dollar stablecoin, runs on Stellar, and MoneyGram lets customers convert USDC on Stellar to and from cash at its locations.

Asset managers also use Stellar. Franklin Templeton's tokenized money market fund, known as BENJI, runs on the network, and in June 2025 PayPal said it planned to bring its PYUSD stablecoin to Stellar, and Paxos, which issues PYUSD, now lists Stellar among the networks it runs on.

People also hold and trade XLM itself on exchanges. Because XLM is the network's fee coin and the bridge asset in some currency swaps, its demand ties to network activity, though the fees themselves are very small.

Risks To Know

Ownership is concentrated. SDF held about 15.6 billion XLM as of July 2026, roughly a third of the total supply, and releases it over time through grants and partnerships. Those releases add to the coins available on the market.

Network use and XLM demand are not the same thing. Much of Stellar's real-world activity runs on stablecoins, so a busy network doesn't require people to hold much XLM. Fees are so low that heavy use creates little buying pressure.

The network has stopped once. On May 15, 2019, Stellar halted for 67 minutes after some validators went offline or were misconfigured. SDF said the protocol stopped "as intended" rather than splitting, but it showed how much the network depends on a limited set of well-run validators.

Stellar competes with Ripple's XRP Ledger, Solana and Ethereum-based networks for payment and stablecoin traffic, and there is no US spot ETF for XLM.

How To Buy Stellar

XLM is widely available. In the US, Coinbase, Kraken, Bitstamp, Binance.US, Crypto.com and OKX all list it. Bitstamp's US service stops taking new deposits and purchases on Feb. 1, 2027. International buyers can also find it on Bitget, MEXC and Gate.

When you move XLM to a personal wallet, the new account needs at least 1 XLM to activate, and some exchanges ask for a memo field when you send XLM to them. Leaving the memo off can delay or lose a deposit. The table below shows what your money actually gets you at each exchange after fees and spread.

Stellar And Your Taxes

The IRS treats XLM as property, so selling, trading or spending it triggers a capital gain or loss. Hold it more than a year for long-term rates. Shorter holds are taxed as ordinary income.

Stellar has no staking and has paid no inflation rewards since 2019, so most holders only deal with gains and losses when they sell. If you received XLM from an airdrop or as payment, that counts as income when you receive it. Read more on how crypto taxes work.

FAQ

Is Stellar A Good Investment?

The answer turns on factors you have to weigh yourself. Stellar has real payment partners and a fixed supply, but most activity runs on stablecoins rather than XLM, fees are tiny and SDF still holds about a third of all lumens. Compare those points with your goals and how much risk you can carry. For more background, see how to invest in Stellar.

What Is The Max Supply Of Stellar?

Stellar's total supply is fixed at about 50 billion XLM. The network started with 100 billion, added about 5.4 billion through inflation until validators turned it off in 2019, and then SDF burned about 55.4 billion. No new lumens can be created, and SDF has pledged not to burn any more.

Who Created Stellar?

Jed McCaleb, who earlier co-founded Ripple, and lawyer Joyce Kim started Stellar in 2014. The Stellar Development Foundation, a nonprofit, has guided the project since then. SDF's leadership team includes Denelle Dixon and McCaleb, according to SDF, and the foundation's grants still shape much of how the network grows.

Is There A Stellar ETF?

There is no US spot XLM ETF as of November 2026. Grayscale's Stellar Lumens Trust (GXLM) trades over the counter and is not an exchange-listed ETF, and its price can drift away from the value of the XLM it holds. Volatility Shares offers a futures-based fund, which doesn't hold XLM directly.

Can I Buy Stellar In An IRA?

Not through a spot ETF, since none exists in the US. Some crypto IRA providers let you hold XLM directly in a self-directed account, and a brokerage IRA may allow the over-the-counter Grayscale trust. Check fees carefully. Compare options in our list of crypto IRA providers.

Where Can I Buy Stellar In The US?

Coinbase, Kraken, Bitstamp, Binance.US, Crypto.com and OKX all list XLM for US customers. State availability can differ, so confirm the exchange serves your state before you sign up. Include the memo when you deposit XLM to an exchange, or the deposit can be delayed.