Stellar Price Surges Ahead of Protocol 28 Vote

The price of Stellar (XLM) has surged nearly 6% over the past 24 hours, reaching $0.193 on September 15, as traders position themselves ahead of the Protocol 28 mainnet upgrade vote.

This move has been driven by recent developments involving US Bank and MoneyGram, which have kept attention on Stellar's payments infrastructure. The Protocol 28 upgrade, scheduled for September 16, includes changes to Stellar Core and Soroban smart contracts, as well as the ability for validators to begin voting before receiving a complete transaction set.

The Stellar Development Foundation has been working with MoneyGram since 2021 on cash-to-USDC and USDC-to-cash services, and the new card extends the use of Stellar infrastructure into card payments. US Bank also completed its first pilot transaction using USBDC, its proprietary dollar-backed stablecoin, which moved money between the bank's entities in North America and Europe over Stellar.