Stellar Activity Scorches 14%; Will XLM Price Catch Fire?

On-chain activity heatwave hits Stellar weeks ahead of the Yardstick mainnet upgrade: is XLM’s price ready to ignite?

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Stellar Lumens (XLM) swung higher by 10% in a weekly time-frame, bringing back hopes of a $0.20 resistance reclaim following the Yardstick (Protocol 26) upgrade earlier this month. With the stable releases for Stellar’s Yardstick upgrade kicking off on April 8, the testnet upgrade came on April 16, 2026.

Developers Get Prepped For Stellar’s Big Moment

Stellar’s chain validator nodes shall update their SDKs, Stellar Core, Horizon, RPC to the Protocol 26 versions before the network validator mainnet vote. There’s currently 93 active validator nodes on Stellar Lumens chain, with this figure expected to increase above 100 following the performance-focused Yardstick mainnet upgrade on Stellar.

Next month, Stellar’s (XLM) community is set to vote on the mainnet upgrade on May 6, but the big shift in network activity can be witnessed already. According to latest data from Chainspect, Stellar’s Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) chain is showcasing more real-world usage than ever before, growing to a stupendous 14.1 million transfers on April 16, 2026.

10% Uptick Puts XLM’s Price In Dubious Territory

This week, XLM’s price hiked 10%, but the current $0.169 price territory doesn’t promise an easy road unless the altcoin confidently breaks through $0.179. This represents the red-label Bollinger Band (BOLL), a key trend-line that offers mathematical insight into the rally’s sustainability.

On  the bright side, big-time crypto players, popularly referred to as crypto whales, are back from the sidelines, racking up stacks of XLM on Saturday. This has also significantly boosted the MACD line, which could create bullish divergence if Stellar holds the mid-line BOLL at $0.166.

The Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) at 0.34 on the 4-hour XLM charts portrays this, but the high dependence on Bitcoin’s (BTC) price movement has prevented Stellar Lumens (XLM) from tackling the monthly highs of $0.179, last hit on March 26, 2026, according to CoinGecko.

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People Also Ask:

What just happened with Stellar?

Stellar set a new weekly record with over 14.1 million transactions on April 16, 2026. That’s a strong +14% jump from the day before, showing real growth in actual network usage.

Why hasn’t XLM price pumped hard yet?

XLM is still trading around $0.16–$0.17 range. The market is waiting to see if this activity surge turns into sustained growth and bigger partnerships. Price usually catches up when the usage story becomes undeniable.

What should beginners watch for next?

Watch if daily transactions stay above 12–14 million and if XLM can break above $0.179 resistance from DailyCoin’s analysis with strong volume. Continued high activity could finally push the price to catch up with bullish news.

DailyCoin's Vibe Check: Which way are you leaning towards after reading this article?
Market Sentiment
100% Bullish

This article is for information purposes only and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein shall be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading forex, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs pose a considerable risk of loss.

Author
Tadas Klimasevskis

Tadas Klimaševskis is a DailyCoin Journalist, covering memecoins & latest developments. Tadas has moderate holdings in SHIB, HBAR, LTC, MATIC and a selection of low-cap meme currencies.

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