CoinMarketCap reports that the value of XLM soared about 13.3% after the announcement, reaching $0.57 on a Wednesday afternoon. Remarkably, in May 2017, it was valued at less than half a cent. Now, with a market capitalization of $10.3 billion, it ranks as the sixth-largest cryptocurrency.
Compared to Stellar’s swift transaction speed of 2 to 5 seconds, other cryptocurrencies can take over 24 hours to process transactions.
Stripe, after supporting bitcoin for nearly four years, will cease accepting it on April 23. The company indicated that bitcoin has transitioned into more of an asset than a transactional medium. Stripe pointed out several challenges with bitcoin, such as increased transaction confirmation times, rising failure rates, and escalating fees. “Empirically, there are fewer and fewer use cases for which accepting or paying with bitcoin makes sense,” Stripe commented.
Over 100,000 businesses and individual users around the world rely on Stripe’s payment solutions. Their clientele includes diverse industries, with companies like Warby Parker and Under Armour Inc. among them.
Although Stripe has halted bitcoin payments, product manager Tom Karlo emphasized their ongoing vigilance of the ecosystem. The payment processor is open to the potential for bitcoin to regain viability as a payment method in the future.
Purchasing cryptocurrencies and participating in Initial Coin Offerings (“ICOs”) carries high risk and speculative nature. This article does not serve as a recommendation to invest in cryptocurrencies or ICOs. Individual circumstances vary, and it is critical to seek advice from a qualified professional before making financial decisions. No claims on the accuracy or timeliness of the provided information are made. Note that the author owned cryptocurrency at the time of this article’s writing.