The Stellar network, the underlying peer-to-peer (P2P) payment network and development platform that enables almost instantaneous transactions worldwide, supports Lumens (XLM), the native digital currency. By connecting businesses and financial institutions with individual users, particularly those without access to traditional banking systems, XLM and Stellar aim to increase financial inclusion. Additionally, the Stellar network enables quick, safe, and inexpensive conversions between various units of value (e.g., commodities, fiat currencies, and other digital assets).

The XRP Ledger, the underlying P2P payment network of the XRP token that is led by Ripple, served as the basis for the Stellar network, which was first introduced in July 2014 and originally borrowed some of its code from it. XRP Ledger sought to provide liquidity solutions for large institutions under the partial supervision of a for-profit company known as Ripple, while Stellar targeted both organizations and individuals with a focus on global financial inclusion via partial oversight from a nonprofit, SDF. Although the two payment networks were intended to be globally scalable and accessible, they were built on fundamentally different principles.

SDF received a seed investment from Stripe at its launch and has subsequently formed alliances with Fortune 500 firms including IBM and Franklin Templeton. Given SDF’s egalitarian goals, high degree of industry backing, and skilled development team, XLM has outperformed many of its rivals to take the tenth place for the largest digital asset in the ecosystem by market cap. 1

1 Coin Metrics, CoinMarketCap.com, Messari / OnChainFX. As of November 30, 2019.