• XLM has lost more than 3% of its value in the last 24 hours.

• MoneyGram has announced support for the Stellar Aid Assist

• The total crypto market cap could fall below $800 billion soon.

MoneyGram announces support for Stellar Aid Assist

Payment service provider MoneyGram announced on Thursday that it now supports the Stellar Foundation’s Stellar Aid Assist. MoneyGram said it is the first-of-its-kind blockchain-powered aid disbursement system that delivers relief funds quickly, affordably and efficiently to individuals in crisis.

MoneyGram is proud to support our partners at the @StellarOrg (SDF) on the launch of Stellar Aid Assist, a first-of-its-kind blockchain-powered aid disbursement system that delivers relief funds quickly, affordably and efficiently to individuals in crisis.https://t.co/WwtGR2K3dK

— MoneyGram (@MoneyGram) December 15, 2022

Despite this latest cryptocurrency news, XLM, the native token of the Stellar blockchain, has been underperforming. The price of Stellar Lumens now stands at $0.0793, down by 3.5% in the last 24 hours.

The broader cryptocurrency market has also been underperforming over the past 24 hours. The total crypto market cap stands at $827, down by more than 3% so far today. The market cap could decline below $800 billion if the bearish trend continues.

Bitcoin is also underperforming today and could drop below the $17k support level before the end of the day.

Key levels to watch

The XLM/USD 4-hour chart is bearish, as Stellar Lumen has been underperforming over the past few days. The technical indicators show that XLM could dip lower soon.

The MACD line is below the neutral zone, indicating that the bears are currently in charge of the XLM market. The 14-day relative strength index of 34 shows that XLM could enter the oversold region soon.

If the bearish trend continues, XLM could drop below the first major support level at $0.07300 before the end of the day. With the bears still in charge, XLM could drop below the $0.0700 psychological level over the next few days.

However, the MoneyGram news could push XLM’s price higher in the near term. If that happens, XLM could push past the $0.08566 resistance level.

Where to buy Stellar Lumen now

eToro

eToro offers a wide range of cryptos, such as Bitcoin, XRP and others, alongside crypto/fiat and crypto/crypto pairs. eToro users can connect with, learn from, and copy or get copied by other users.

Buy XLM with eToro today

Disclaimer

Bitstamp

Bitstamp is a leading cryptocurrency exchange which offers trading in fiat currencies or popular cryptocurrencies.

Bitstamp is a fully regulated company which offers users an intuitive interface, a high degree of security for your digital assets, excellent customer support and multiple withdrawal methods.

Buy XLM with Bitstamp today

Celsius Network LLC, embattled crypto lending firm, is likely to fight its financial battles alone as multiple reports reaching WSJ suggest the loan company would probably not get any funding from two of its biggest investors.

CDPQ and Westcap Group led a $400 million Series B for Celsius

Quebec-based Pension Fund giant Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), and American Investment Firm Westcap Group both collectively led a $400 million Series B funding program for the Celsius Network in October of last year. The fund was later expanded to $750 million a month after.

Upon the conclusion of the Series B, Celsius rose to a valuation of $3.25 billion. However, reports from industry players with knowledge of the matter have suggested that more financing from these investors in an attempt to bail the crypto lender from its sinking state is not to be expected.

One of the sources noted a sense of more risk than was expected as a primary reason for the investors’ backout which, of course, is fully understandable given the lender’s state of things and how the ongoing crisis has been handled of late.

Celsius holds a delicate position

Celsius Network has for some time now been battling an impending economic downturn that has threatened the very nature of the firm even though they have failed to admit it.

A few days back, the platform outright paused withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts due to “extreme market conditions”. The firm mentioned that the decision was meant to put them in a better position to honour withdrawal obligations.

Tracking the company’s collateral position using Oasis reveals a 195% collateralization ratio with a loan of $545 million worth of WBTC. On top of this, the liquidation price sits at $16,852 for the price of BTC. Should BTC drop to that value, the position of the firm would be liquidated in the absence of more collateral.

Celsius’ predicament affects the crypto market in a big way due in large part to the scope the company covers within the space, being one of the largest lenders out there. Their possession of about 151,534 BTCs would drive panic within the crypto space should they get liquidated.

Cardano is taking its next steps to work on improving its smart contracts and transaction throughput.

Cardano’s Basho upgrade, outlined by co-founder Charles Hoskinson in a video blog earlier this year, is in full swing. One of the announced changes was an increase in block size from 72KB to 80 KB, which will take place on Feb 4, 2022. Input-Output Hong Kong made that announcement this week on Twitter, also saying that there would be memory improvements rolled out for Plutus, Cardano’s smart contract scripting language.

Both these improvements are part of Cardano’s scaling ambitions. IOHK wants to provide additional resources to provide a better experience for decentralized app users. The firm claims that the network is designed to manage high loads competently and will be closely observed for at least five days after new changes are made but also warned of peak loads during anticipated app launches and significant NFT drops.

Transaction throughput improvement is key

What does the larger block size mean? In a nutshell, it means more data capacity for a single block on a blockchain. This theoretically allows more transactions to be added to a single block, increasing transaction throughput. The Cardano blockchain recently experienced high congestion from its NFT marketplace, jpg.store.

Transactions were failing due to a peak load of over 92%. SundaeSwap was the first dApp to launch on the Cardano blockchain. It, too, experienced teething problems where users could not do token swaps due to network congestion. The issue was subsequently resolved, according to the CEO of SundaeSwap, Mateen Motawaf.

SundaeSwap currently has over $68M in total value locked.

Other notable upgrades to Cardano included in the Basho scaling plan are improvements in Unspent Transaction Output handling, stake distribution, and live stake distribution. There are also off-chain improvements in the works, including the introduction of sidechains. A sidechain is a blockchain connected to the main blockchain via a bridge to enable tokens from one chain to be used in another and returned to the main chain.

Products built on Cardano using smart contracts

Cardano’s dApps are audited for integrity to alleviate fears around unscrupulous parties. Other dApps in the works include MinSwap and ADALend, which is a Cardano-based lending solution looking to provide dApps with a flexible layer-two, much like Ethereum’s layer-two solutions.

The Alonzo hard fork was a watershed moment for Cardano. It was the occasion of the Plutus smart contract platform, which paved the way for NFTs, dApps, and DeFi on the network.

Disclaimer

All the information contained on our website is published in good faith and for general information purposes only. Any action the reader takes upon the information found on our website is strictly at their own risk.