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Stellar (XLM) has surpassed Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in crypto market capitalization rankings as a fresh wave of buying pressure sends XLM higher.
XLM has risen over 13% in the last 24 hours, building on a weeklong rally that followed a major golden cross on its daily chart over the past weekend.
The move has taken Stellar two spots above Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in crypto market rankings. According to CoinMarketCap data, Stellar (XLM) ranks 16th largest with a market capitalization of $7.55 billion, followed by Near Protocol (NEAR), which sits in the 17th spot with a market cap of $6.66 billion. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) ranks as the 18th largest crypto with a market valuation of $6.61 billion.
Stellar XLM began to rise from a low of $0.172 on September 16, which coincided with a broader market rebound and the launch of the Adapter (Protocol 28) upgrade on Mainnet.
The Adapter upgrade launched on September 16 brought improvements including faster consensus, even under load; atomic upgrades for fleets of contracts; and a safer, standard way to migrate contract data.
P28's mainnet launch also brought performance gains to Stellar, allowing ledgers to close in about 5 seconds, down from about 5.7 seconds. Throughput rose 10–15% on mainnet, while a peak of 216.1 TPS was recorded across 100 consecutive blocks and up to 2x fewer instructions on some contract calls.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Rally Pauses
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) saw a strong surge earlier in the week after CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, announced that it will launch Bitcoin Cash (BCH) futures on October 19, pending regulatory review.
The listing will enable market participants to trade larger and micro-sized contracts of Bitcoin Cash futures (250 BCH) and Micro Bitcoin Cash futures (25 BCH).
Before this news, Bitcoin Cash was rallying from a $213 low on September 16 to a $365 high on September 23, 2026, before bulls retreated.
At the time of writing, BCH was down 4.53% in the last 24 hours to $331.