Stellar (XLM) Continues To Attract New Investors While Ripple (XRP) Struggles With Security Status

Investors in the digital payments industry have turned their attention to Stellar (XLM) as Ripple (XRP) just got served with another lawsuit concerning its legal status as a potential security. Stellar (XLM) has had a promising partner in IBM for quite some time now. With rumors that IBM is going to launch its own cryptocurrency using the Stellar blockchain, interest in this cryptocurrency has grown tremendously despite weak price action and a near term bearish outlook. Stellar Lumens (XLM) is still trading in a falling wedge against USD as can be seen above on the 1D chart. The price action suggests that further downside is likely before Stellar (XLM) can break out of the falling wedge, most likely to the upside as falling wedges are normally considered a bullish sign. The RSI has crawled back above 40 but faces strong resistance for a break out. Current technical indicators point to an extended correction till mid July or August, 2018. Near term price action may mask the true exuberance of Stellar (XLM) backers and investors. Most investors in the cross border and peer to peer payments industry either had a favorite in Stellar or Ripple. Some invested in both to lower risk. However, recent developments with Ripple (XRP) have clearly made it clear to most investors that XRP is not the asset to put new money in. As much as Ripple or Ripple enthusiasts would like to distance Ripple from XRP, the fact remains that XRP is a creation of Ripple (the company) and the company still owns billions of it. Whether or not it is a security would depend on whether XRP was sold to customers as an investment vehicle. That is for the company and regulatory agencies to debate. However, for investors, the fact that Ripple has no real use case for XRP was already a pain point. Now, this whole debate over Ripple’s legal status has further labeled XRP as a do not touch cryptocurrency. So, for investors who want to bet on a winner in the payment solutions industry, Stellar (XLM) now appears to be a clear winner. It has the potential to become the world’s largest peer to peer payments platform eliminating the need for banks and middlemen altogether. In addition to that, Stellar (XLM) can also be used as an efficient and scalable blockchain by large corporations like IBM as well as financial institutions and even central banks. Stellar Lumens (XLM) also appear lucrative from an investment standpoint. The cryptocurrency is currently trading in a triangle against Bitcoin (BTC). The price action signals that it will enter a decisive phase before the month of August. The price has just bounced off the support line and now seems poised for a run up in the short term. Earlier this year, Stellar (XLM) traded at a price of $1+ before falling down to $0.17 a few days back. Stellar (XLM) is currently down 76% from its all time high but up 730% for the last 12 months.