Stellar (XLM) has been following the general sentiment in the market and trending to the downside in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other larger cryptocurrencies were rejected at critical resistance levels and now seem poised to push the sector into support.
At the same time, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) published its Q2, 2022, celebrating “steady progress on its 2022 roadmap”. The non-profit organization claims the network has experienced improvements in terms of scalability, demand, and participation.
One of this quarter’s major milestones is Project Jump Cannon which is set to provide Stellar with a “robust execution environment for smart contracts”. In January, this network announced the implementation of smart contracts with a tentative launch date set for December 2022.
The announcement was made by Tomer Weller, Vice President of Technological Strategy at the SDF, who has been supervising the implementation of these capabilities with WebAssembly (WASM) runtime. The SDF claims WASM will provide its smart contracts with a secure, scalable, and easily accessible environment.
In addition, the SDF claimed the network has benefited from the introduction of Protocol 19. This update facilitates the “creation of payment channels” or second-layer payment solutions that support “high-throughput use cases”, the report claims.
The Stellar network also expanded its ecosystem in Q2, 2022, with the deployment of MoneyGram Access. Global crypto to fiat on/off ramp financial service that allows MoneyGram customers to send and receive remittances without the high cost of using legacy payment rails.
The SDF has been consolidating major partnerships with international exchange platforms, such as with CoinMe and Mercado Bitcoin. The organization also announced that Novatti will deploy a digital version of the Australian Dollar (AUD) on the Stellar network.
Stellar Faces Macro-Economic Headwinds
Despite the network updates, partnerships, and use cases, Stellar (XLM) is reacting to the macro-economic environment. The milestones announced by the SDF are counterweighted by a global economic environment of high inflation, interest rates hike, and less liquidity across global markets.
On short timeframes, XLM’s price records important support below its current levels. Data from Material Indicators shows there are around $1 million in bid orders waiting to potentially operate as support if the price of XLM continues to move to the downside.
Material Indicators record an increase in buying pressure from small investors. Unless larger investors jump into the market with bid orders, this trend suggests a potential re-test of lower levels.
XLM’s price and the crypto market could see a push to the upside if U.S. public companies’ earnings season contributes by showing positive results, Director of Macro for investment firm Fidelity Jurrien Timmer hinted at that possibility.
Q2 earnings are encouraging so far, but remember, we have 9% inflation, and earnings are generally considered in nominal terms. So there is less than meets the eye here. Expected earnings growth for 2022 remains at +10%, but without the energy sector, it’s only +4.3%.
— Jurrien Timmer (@TimmerFidelity)
SDF’s report hints at long-term appreciation for Stellar and its native token, but current macro-conditions are unfavorable. If XLM and major cryptocurrencies can preserve their current levels beyond this week, that could be a potential sign of a sustainable bullish price action.
A literature major, Reynaldo Márquez has been deeply immersed in the crypto industry since 2017. His journey began with translating articles for various crypto news outlets, a role he took on with zeal. In 2018, amidst a challenging market, he embraced his first writing assignment, demonstrating his unwavering commitment to the nascent industry and the promise of change it bears for many people worldwide.
In March 2021, he joined the prestigious crypto news outlet NewsBTC and Bitcoinist, where he not only reported on the latest crypto news but also had the privilege of interviewing some of the industry's most influential figures. A year later, his dedication and hard work were recognized, and he was promoted to Managing Editor, a position he currently holds with pride.
He believes in honesty, good communication, hard work, and the power of cryptocurrency and its potential to transform people's lives, especially those alienated by the legacy financial system. Born in 1992 in Venezuela, Reynaldo is familiar with how governments and central banks can negatively affect people, their everyday lives, and their futures by creating inflation and erasing their hopes for a better future. Thus, like many Venezuelans, he embraced this new technology to help him and his family navigate difficult times.
In another life, Reynaldo would have pursued a career as an investigator, most likely tracking down the origins of the Cyberpunk movement with the publication of William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer.’ The intersection between fiction and reality, with the materialization of Bitcoin in 2009, would have allowed him to dive deep into the crypto sphere as something more than a financial phenomenon but also a cultural shift in society that was brewing since the XX century, and maybe even sooner, in the XIX century with the publication of Henry David Thoreau’s ‘Civil Disobedience.’
But that’s for another life. In this one, Reynaldo has been trading to improve his trading skills. Since 2023, he has been trying to learn Python to create successful strategies and find ways to execute them. It is a difficult task, which continues to keep him busy today and will most likely continue to keep him busy in the near and long term.
In his free time, he enjoys lifting heavy objects, reading, watching movies, and listening to his favorite music. Some of his favorite authors are Walt Whitman, William Faulkner, Allen Ginsberg, James Baldwin, Raymond Carver, Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, Mario Vargas Llosa, Reinaldo Arenas, Rafael Cadenas, and many others. Lately, he has been primarily interested in reading about dystopic societies, a topic that deeply resonates with the crypto industry.
Since 2023, he has lived in Spain with his wife. He loves the weather, the food, and the people and their culture. They both expect to travel much more within the country they now call home and beyond its border. He hopes to retire with his wife, maybe in a quiet place near a beach, but most likely in a city close to a library and a university with his kids and, hopefully, grandkids.
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