According to Woofun AI, the total scale of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on the Stellar network has officially surpassed $5 billion (approximately 6.66 trillion Korean won), yet the market performance of its native token Stellar Lumens (XLM) has severely diverged from this fundamental backdrop, with its price lingering around 14 cents ($0.14) for an extended period.
This inversion of "asset scale expansion" versus "token price stagnation" highlights a structural flaw in the network's value capture mechanism.
Although the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) recently trumpeted this milestone, XLM has cumulatively declined by approximately 29% year-to-date, forming a massive market cap gap with competitor XRP — the latter, despite also falling 44.6% over the same period and currently trading around $1.02, commands a total market capitalization of approximately $65 billion (about 86.56 trillion Korean won), roughly 13 times XLM's market cap of about $5.2 billion (approximately 6.925 trillion Korean won).
This stark disparity indicates that mere accumulation of network assets has not effectively translated into capital enthusiasm for XLM.
From the underlying data perspective, the Stellar network's growth momentum is indeed strong, but it has failed to provide support for the token price.
Data compiled by Woofun AI, based on statistics from analytics firm Allium, shows that as of the end of September this year, the scale of tokenized RWA on the Stellar network surged 6.1 times within a year to reach $4.12 billion (approximately 5.487 trillion Korean won), a growth rate far exceeding the broader market's average growth of 2.3 times.
Among this, the scale of tokenized non-U.S. Treasury assets reached $319 million (approximately 425 billion Korean won).
Meanwhile, stablecoin supply grew 91% within a year, and adjusted stablecoin transfer volume increased 22%.
The active participation of well-known financial institutions such as Franklin Templeton (BEN.US) and Spiko further validates the network's potential at the institutional application level.
However, these thriving on-chain activities have not directly pushed up the XLM price, and the core reason lies in Stellar's transaction fee mechanism: each transaction costs far less than 1 cent and is paid in XLM.
This means that even if financial institutions tokenize hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets, they do not need to hold large amounts of XLM to cover extremely low gas fees, resulting in a severe disconnect between increased network usage and token purchase demand.
In contrast, XRP can directly attract institutional investor capital inflows through spot ETFs launched by institutions such as Bitwise, thereby forming direct support for the token price.
At the strategic partnership level, Stellar has attempted to break the deadlock through collaboration with the U.S. Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), but short-term results have been limited.
The two parties announced in May this year a plan to tokenize stocks, ETFs, and U.S. Treasuries on the Stellar network, aiming to build infrastructure that institutional markets can trust.
However, although DTCC officially launched its tokenized securities service on October 28, the service currently operates primarily on the Canton network and its own private blockchain, with deep integration with the Stellar network not expected until the first half of 2027.
This time gap makes it difficult for the market to see substantial positive developments materialize in the short term.
Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon emphasized when announcing the partnership that the financial value of blockchain lies in becoming foundational infrastructure that institutional markets can trust and rely on, but this vision currently remains more at the strategic level and has not yet translated into immediate market momentum.
From the perspective of technical analysis and market expectations, XLM faces severe upward resistance.
Analysis indicates that only when the XLM price can recover to the $0.19 level where the 50-day moving average sits, and DTCC's tokenization service truly begins operating on the Stellar network, can the market expect its price to surpass XRP.
Conversely, if the service launch is delayed and XLM's price remains below $0.18, XRP's market cap advantage is likely to continue.
Therefore, the core task currently facing Stellar is to effectively link the growing RWA scale with investment demand for XLM itself.
Increased network usage does not equate to token price appreciation, and if this broken value transmission mechanism cannot be resolved, XLM may remain undervalued for a considerable period, making it difficult to challenge XRP's leading position in mainstream payments and institutional adoption.
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