Stellar price stays near 0.17 USD as Bell votes approach
Published on 10/31/2026 at 07:06 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWSWhat matters for XLM next
- Stellar's Bell, Protocol 30, has proposed testnet and mainnet votes on November 3 and November 23, 2026.
- The upgrade would add muxed contract addresses, ML-DSA signature verification for smart contracts and millisecond ledger timing.
- U.Today reported a regulated repo transaction on Stellar using tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds as collateral.
- Investing.com listed XLM at 0.16995 USD, while Kinzan recorded a 0.1620 USD UTC close for October 30.
The Stellar price is near 0.17 USD as investors assess a reported institutional transaction on the network and prepare for Stellar's next protocol vote. Investing.com listed XLM/USD at 0.16995 USD in its reviewed market data, alongside 174.42 million USD in 24-hour volume and a 6.00 billion USD market capitalization. For comparison, Kinzan recorded a 0.1620 USD UTC daily close for October 30, 2026. The displayed price is therefore 4.91 percent above that reference close, although the move itself remains below the 5 percent threshold for a standalone price-led headline.
Institutional use moves into focus
On October 23, fintech firm Ascend Markets and M1X Global announced the completion of what they described as the first regulated short-term collateralized lending, or repo, transaction on Stellar. U.Today reported that the transaction used tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds as collateral against USDC and ran from October 16 to October 19, including the weekend.
The report said smart contracts handled 72 hourly rollovers over the 72-hour period, while total network fees were below one U.S. cent. These are transaction-specific figures, not evidence that all Stellar activity has reached the same scale. They do, however, illustrate the network's intended use in tokenized-asset settlement and continuous financial-market operations.
Bell upgrade sets the next milestone
The Stellar Development Foundation's Bell, Protocol 30 announcement sets a testnet vote for November 3, 2026, and a mainnet vote for November 23, both at 17:00 UTC. The dates are subject to change, and the votes would determine whether the proposed upgrade takes effect.
Bell contains three changes. CAP-84 introduces muxed contract addresses so one smart contract can distinguish multiple customers. CAP-87 enables smart contracts to verify ML-DSA post-quantum signatures, while network transaction signatures remain Ed25519 for now. CAP-88 records ledger timing in milliseconds, creating a prerequisite for future efforts to shorten ledger close times. Wallets, exchanges, SDKs and other infrastructure would need to support the new address and ledger formats.
Price context for XLM holders
Investing.com showed 35.25 billion XLM in circulation against a stated maximum supply of 50.00 billion, with Stellar ranked 16th on that page. The same source listed a 52-week range of 0.13725 to 0.31124 USD. That range and the October 30 UTC close underline the token's volatility, while the Bell timetable gives market participants a dated technical milestone to monitor. The repo transaction and protocol work may strengthen the network's use-case narrative, but neither source establishes a direct effect on the token's price.
Further coverage and previous reports are collected on the Stellar topic page.
