Stellar (XLM) experienced a sharp 30% weekly surge, momentarily surpassing privacy token Zcash (ZEC) in market capitalization rankings, before a sell-off erased much of the intraday gains. The rally was fueled by a series of positive developments, including the launch of cross-chain swaps for XLM and USDC on Stellar via SushiSwap, enabling seamless swapping across over 40 blockchains. Additionally, Circle announced support for its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) on Stellar, and the Stellar JS SDK v16.0.0 went live alongside the Protocol 27 testnet upgrade.
Further bolstering momentum was Archax’s introduction of GOVY, a tokenized perpetual US Treasury Bill product compliant with HQLA Level 1 standards, launched on Ethereum, Hedera, and Stellar, initially available to non-US investors. The news pushed XLM to a high of $0.2515 on June 18, but profit-taking quickly ensued. By the next day, XLM had dropped over 10% to $0.217, trimming weekly gains to 14% and reducing its market cap to $7.39 billion. Zcash reclaimed its position with a $7.46 billion market cap, ranking 12th ahead of Stellar at 13th. Both tokens traded in the red amid broader market declines, with ZEC down 4.44% to $446.
