Stellar Taps PayPal, Block Execs as XLM Jumps 85% — 2x Rally Ahead?

• The Stellar Development Foundation is ramping up its growth plans by appointing former leaders from PayPal and Block.
• In just the past week, XLM has surged over 85%, and is now sitting only about 50% away from its all-time high of $0.90. 

Stellar is gearing up for transformation. To set things in motion, the Stellar Development Foundation has brought in some heavy hitters, poaching talent straight out of PayPal and Jack Dorsey’s Block.

Jason Karsh, who helped shape strategy at Block’s Bitcoin hardware division and also held key roles at Coinbase, is now leading Stellar’s global marketing efforts.

His job? Not just to get the word out, but to weave Stellar’s brand, product, and ecosystem into a clear, unified story that resonates with developers, institutions, and everyday users alike.

In a post on X, Karsh shared his excitement about joining the team, signaling that big things may be on the horizon for Stellar.

Joining him is José Fernández da Ponte, the former head of blockchain and digital currencies at PayPal. He’s stepping in as President and Chief Growth Officer, where he’ll be focused on building major partnerships and driving real-world adoption across payments, tokenization, and open finance.

These are calculated moves designed to help Stellar solidify its position as a dominant force in tokenized assets and cross-border payments. To push this forward, the Stellar Development Foundation has something big lined up.

It’s the first-ever on-chain governance vote, scheduled for August 14. For the network, it’s a milestone to help it shift toward a more decentralized, community-driven approach to how the protocol grows and evolves.

Just a month ago, PayPal announced it would bring its stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), to the Stellar network. As Crypto News Flash explained, the decision was driven by a clear goal: to boost the stablecoin’s real-world usefulness in areas like payments, commerce, and even micro-financing.

Stellar’s fast speeds, low fees, and seamless integration made it a natural fit for what PayPal needed to expand PYUSD’s utility beyond just crypto wallets and into everyday financial applications.

Is a 2x Rally in the Cards for XLM?

The crypto market is turning its eyes back to Stellar, and the mood is bullish. XLM, currently the 12th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has seen a surge, jumping nearly 95% in just three days, according to World of Charts.

After months of sluggish price action, it finally broke out of a downtrend, briefly touching $0.5166, its highest point since January 2025, and has now dipped to its current price of $0.42.

With a maximum supply of 50 billion tokens and 31 billion already in circulation, this rally has caught the attention of traders and analysts alike. Stellar’s Total Value Locked (TVL) sits at $142 million, showing a modest 3% climb, while trading volume surged by 34% to $1.76 billion.

Adding to this, crypto analyst Remi Relief tweeted, “XLM Will Be The Biggest Shocker,” putting Stellar in the same breath as Ripple (XRP), the third-largest token by market cap, estimated at $192 billion. He emphasized that both are in demand, limited in supply, and essential to the evolving financial landscape.

His advice to the community? Store your XLM safely in a user-friendly cold wallet, and maybe keep a little tucked away for what’s coming next.