It seems that much of the altcoin market woke up today while Bitcoin has remained unwavering at its current price level. One cryptocurrency in the top-20, however, has exceeded all the rest in gains: Stellar Lumens (XLM).

XLM is leading the top-20 cryptocurrencies today in a spectacular rise which may signal that a year-long ‘altcoin drought’ may be over. XLM pumped more than 52% today to a high of $0.085 and has since slipped back a bit to $0.0805 at the time of writing.

The price explosion seemingly came out of the blue but there been a significant increase in trading volume. On Sept 16, the trading volume for XLM was around $84M over a 24-hour period. Now, that trading volume has more than quadrupled to a whopping $372M. This increase in volume seemed to happen parallel to the price increase.

It’s difficult to pinpoint why XLM is moving so violently upward now, but it has been in ‘accumulation territory’ for a long time now. Moreover, it was perhaps the hardest-hit from all the altcoins in the top 20. Not only was it posting absolutely no gains for 2019, but it also struggled to even maintain a basic price floor. The project even released a ‘new website’ as its price plummeted to a new all-time low just four weeks ago.

The recently-completed airdrop of XLM by Binance did not do much to move the price either which concluded on Sept 6th and distributed some 9,500,000 XLM to everyone with at least 10 XLM in their Binance exchange wallets.

Yet, many are now hoping that this current breakout may signal that the slow bleeding for XLM is coming to an end. XLM has taken a battering unlike any other cryptocurrency this year, so let’s hope this is the relief rally traders have been waiting for.

Do you believe that this signals the bottom for XLM or is it too early to say? Let us know your thoughts below in the comments.

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