With all the talk online and in the media about the dreaded “Bitcoin bubble” and the “cryptocurrency crash” it's easy to panic. Certainly drops of over 60% in some currencies is nothing to take lightly, but we’re already seeing signs of the market coming around and, with every crisis comes opportunity, especially for the lesser known currencies on the market. Despite taking its own knock in value, since the start of 2018 there has been a newcomer to the big leagues in the cryptocurrency world – Stellar. Indeed, in January alone Stellar pulled back and increased its value by over 65%, earning itself a market cap of some $10 billion and placing it comfortably amongst the top ten best performing digital currencies in the world for the first time ever. This puts Stellar among such prominent names as Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, IOTA, and Litecoin.How did Stellar get there, when everyone else is struggling to right the flagging market? There are a couple of reasons. Lumens (XLM), the official altcoin of the Stellar Group, are cheap on a per-coin basis. Currently trading at around 35c a piece they can be a tempting gateway for the cautious investor who doesn’t want to bet the farm on the whole cryptocurrency scene imploding. It is also a functional network, rather than a trading one like Bitcoin. Stellar’s blockchain performs transactions anywhere between 2 and 5 seconds, and allows for the rapid exchange of fiat currencies (for example, from GBP to USD), with lumens covering the conversion fee. This permits rapid recovery from an altcoin decline, as people will naturally drop back to government-backed currencies in times of crisis, whilst wishing to have the convenience of the blockchain backing them up. With recent partnerships announced with IBM and notable consultancy company Deloitte adding name recognition to the company, it really is win-win for Stellar, whichever way the overall market runs.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgAA2jAObE0