BTC Markets, a leading Australian bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it will add support for Stellar Lumens (XLM). From April 3rd, BTC Markets users will be able to deposit XLM into their trading accounts, with AUD and BTC market pairs to open on the 4th of April 2019.
A decentralized cross-asset value transfer ledger, Stellar is designed to facilitate instant borderless payments. It provides an open-to-all payments network, to connect individuals, institutions and payment systems through its open-source platform. In practice, to make payments via the Stellar network you first deposit fiat currency to a gateway in the network which converts those funds to tokens on the Stellar ledger. Users can then transfer those funds in real-time to other Stellar network participants.
Stellar (XLM) is often compared to Ripple (XRP), due to their similarities as a decentralized ledger-based payments platform. It comes as no surprise that Stellar’s front-man, co-founder and CTO, Jeb McCaleb, was one of Ripple’s founders but left in 2013 due to differences with leadership about Ripple’s strategic direction. Stellar was then set up in 2014 as a non-profit, with a focus on helping people and extending financial services reach to the unbanked corners of the globe.
Stellar was recently in the news with support from over 40 major banks through IBM.