Stellar news

Volatility Shares has launched 2x leveraged ETFs for Cardano, Stellar, and Chainlink, allowing traders to amplify daily price movements in these major altcoins. The firm, which debuted the first leveraged crypto ETF in the U.S. in 2023, also introduced traditional futures-based ETFs for the same cryptocurrencies. These new products target sophisticated traders seeking specific digital asset exposure, following the firm's earlier leveraged ETFs for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The move comes amid a favorable regulatory environment, though the SEC has recently cautioned issuers against offering 5x leveraged funds due to risk concerns.

Stellar’s XLM keeps sliding despite a major institutional endorsement. Societe Generale‑FORGE deployed a MiCA‑compliant euro‑stablecoin on Stellar, sparking 73% positive sentiment and underscoring the network’s compliance appeal. Technical signals stay bearish: Chaikin Money Flow is negative, indicating outflows dominate, while futures exposure is nearly balanced with a slight short bias. Price hovers at $0.156, just above $0.155 support (38.2% Fibonacci); a drop below $0.145 could trigger $3.2 million in long liquidations. A bullish reversal would require a firm bounce off $0.155 and a breakout above $0.166 toward $0.175, but failing that, the asset may slip to $0.147 (23.6% Fib) or $0.136 if support collapses.

Societe Generale-FORGE, the crypto arm of the French bank, deployed its euro‑denominated stablecoin EUR CoinVertible (EURCV) on the Stellar blockchain, extending a multichain rollout that began on Ethereum in 2023 and added the XRP Ledger weeks earlier. EURCV complies with the EU MiCA framework, is fully backed 1‑to‑1 by bank deposits and liquid assets, and has a market cap of about $452 million.

RedStone has deployed price feed infrastructure on Stellar mainnet, offering data for assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC and PYUSD. The feeds are intended for DeFi apps such as lending, DEXs and tokenized real‑world asset platforms. The launch follows a February exploit that saw $10 million stolen from a Stellar‑based lending pool after the price of the thin‑traded USTRY token was manipulated. RedStone says its deviation‑based update system and daily freshness checks, typically 0.5‑1 % for stablecoins, mitigate such oracle risks. The provider holds roughly 5.5 % of the oracle market, competing with Chainlink.

CME Group launched Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar futures, now covering over 75 % of the global crypto market cap. In 2025 the average daily open interest in CME’s crypto suite hit nearly $25 billion, with an average daily volume of 278,300 contracts – roughly $12 billion notional. The exchange added major altcoins to broaden risk‑return profiles, noting moderate to high correlations with Bitcoin and highlighting diversification benefits.

Stellar Development Foundation announced TopNod, a non‑custodial wallet that eliminates seed phrases with key sharding and TEE, will integrate with the Stellar network at Consensus Hong Kong, marking a key step in its Asian expansion against rivals like Solana, TON and XRP. SDF’s chief business officer said APAC is a critical growth driver, with plans to anchor networks in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam and partner with local institutions to tokenise money‑market funds and stablecoins, though distribution remains a challenge. The network has seen a $1 billion on‑chain RWA value and tripled its DeFi TVL, but XLM has dropped 71 % from its 2025 high and transaction volumes have steadied while average values fall, indicating core payment use persists but speculative activity wanes and Protocol 25 added zero‑knowledge cryptography to position privacy as an auditable, compliant feature.

XLM fell below $0.20, wiping out last year’s gains. Yet on‑chain activity surges, with more than 900 million XLM locked in DeFi, mostly in Blend and Aquarius, and about 60 000 weekly active users staying steady despite the dip. Open‑interest contraction points to a shift toward consolidation. Meanwhile, tokenized real‑world assets hit $1 billion and the network’s $200 m stable‑coin market cap, with MoneyGram testing its USD‑backed token, suggest that RWAs and stablecoins could drive future XLM accumulation even as prices remain low.

Rails has launched Institutional‑Grade Vaults on the Stellar network, giving brokerages and fintechs a single backend to access crypto perpetuals. The firm keeps a centralized matching engine while client funds are held in audited smart‑contract vaults on Stellar, with every 30 s of PnL, fees and liabilities posted on‑chain as Merkle roots that institutions can reconcile independently. By ring‑fencing client collateral from Rails’ own capital, the design aims to cut counterparty and operational risk – a response to past exchange implosions where assets sat in omnibus accounts. Rails, which has processed over $3.4 billion in volume, is registered in the Cayman Islands and is registering with the U.S. National Futures Association.

The third week of January 2026 is expected to see continued volatility in the crypto market, with three altcoins—PancakeSwap (CAKE), Stellar (XLM), and Tezos (XTZ)—highlighted for their upcoming developments and technical outlook. CAKE trades near $2.01 and faces bearish signals, but a community‑approved supply cut from 450m to 400m tokens could lift the price to $2.13. XLM sits at $0.215; a Protocol X‑Ray upgrade set for mainnet this week may reverse a 14% correction and push it to $0.23. XTZ is around $0.559 with potential downside to $0.517, yet the forthcoming Tallinn upgrade could support a rebound toward $0.626.

CME announced it will launch futures contracts for Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM) on Feb. 9, expanding beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum and signalling crypto maturity. Standard and micro contract sizes are 100,000/10,000 ADA, 5,000/250 LINK, and 250,000/12,500 XLM. CME’s 2025 crypto desk saw record daily volume of 278,300 contracts ($12bn notional) and open interest of 313,900 ($26.4bn). Micro contracts drove growth, while Solana and XRP futures quickly gained traction, validating CME’s playbook and supporting the new ADA, LINK, and XLM listings. ProShares filed six ETFs, including leveraged versions, for these assets, slated to launch March 31, depending on CME futures for liquidity and pricing. Market success will be judged by sustained open interest and tight spreads, indicating a genuine altcoin risk‑transfer venue.