5 main drivers supporting the growth of Stellar (XLM) in September

Stellar (XLM) has increased nearly 300% over the past year, far surpassing the returns of many top crypto assets. In comparison, Bitcoin (BTC) only increased by 95.8% and Ethereum (ETH) increased by 84.7%.

Although XLM has decreased by 12% in the past month, many important factors are still opening up prospects for a new price increase in September.

Source: TradingView## What could drive Stellar (XLM) in September?

According to the latest data from Stellar Expert, the user base of the network has seen a significant increase. The number of accounts has risen from 8.6 million to 9.7 million over the past year, reflecting a higher level of adoption.

From July to August, the network processed 264.6 million payment transactions – the highest level in two years.

In addition, the number of successful transactions has increased, while failed transactions have decreased, indicating strong demand and reliability in operations, while also reinforcing investor confidence.

Another important step is the upgrade Protocol 23 (Whisk), approved by validators on 3/9, bringing 8 core improvement proposals (CAPs).

These improvements enable parallel execution, reduce latency and costs, while providing better tools for developers. This is a key step to increase the scalability and performance of the network.

"The changes of Whisk will help the network maintain high speed, affordable costs, and suitability for purpose when scaling to meet the increasing demand, as well as the changes introduced in the next protocol," the Stellar development team stated.

According to Galaxy Digital, another potential catalyst is XLM being shortlisted for the ETF approval plan under the SEC process.

"In total, there are 10 tokens that meet the criteria for quick listing including: DOGE, BCH, LTC, LINK, XLM, AVAX, SHIB, DOT, SOL, and HBAR," Galaxy Digital announced.

With 91 ETF applications currently under review by the SEC, the presence of XLM alongside assets such as Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) has made XLM a top contender. The listing of the ETF will boost liquidity and adoption potential, while also opening the door to attract significant capital inflows from institutional investors, thereby enhancing the outlook for the altcoin.

"Stellar has also penetrated the $24 billion RWA market, and the approval of an ETF could be a catalyst for the next major price surge," Scopuly added.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Commerce has begun publishing quarterly GDP data on the Stellar blockchain, creating a transparent, immutable, and publicly verifiable system.

This is considered a strong recognition for Stellar's technology, while also opening up opportunities to attract more interest from financial institutions and real-world asset tokenization applications.

Although the risk of volatility remains present in the market, the developments indicate that XLM is building a solid foundation for a promising September.

Vincent