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In a rare act of public praise, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson "gave flowers" to two underdogs in the blockchain payments race: Stellar (XLM) and Hedera (HBAR).
The comments came just as both tokens literally rocketed through key resistance levels, outperforming the crypto market and even outshining XRP — considered beta plays by most traders.
Diving into the numbers, Stellar has risen nearly 80% from its early July lows, reclaiming key resistance zones on the USD chart and surpassing $0.45. Stellar also surged on the XLM/XRP pair, reversing months of underperformance and flipping to the upside — potentially a strong technical confirmation that market momentum has changed.
HBAR followed a similar path. The token jumped from sub-$0.16 levels to above $0.25, breaking cleanly through its multi-month range. Against XRP, HBAR also gained major time, suggesting a broader rotation within the blockchain payments sector.
While part of this move likely reflects speculative positioning ahead of expected XRP ETF news, Hoskinson’s remark points to something deeper: the belief that real-world utility is finally being rewarded. Both XLM and HBAR have continued to push forward with development and partnerships, even during the current bear cycle.
In particular, Hedera’s push into verifiable computing and tokenized real-world asset (RWA) infrastructure is drawing renewed attention. If successful, it could elevate HBAR beyond its current top 15 status and into top 5 contender territory.
Whether this week’s rally holds depends on broader crypto sentiment and XRP’s ability to deliver on ETF hype. For now, though, XLM and HBAR are stealing the spotlight — even rivals are starting to take notice.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team