This Bitcoin Rival Is Suddenly Rocketing—Up 75% So Far This Year

Bitcoin has rebounded after a heavy March sell-off to trade more-or-less flat for the year-to-date.

While bitcoin traders and investors are eagerly eyeing the upcoming bitcoin halving, some smaller cryptocurrencies are making massive gains.

Stellar lumens, which trades as XLM, is up 75% since the beginning of 2020—and rocketing higher as cash-heavy investors flock to performing assets.

Stellar, which falls just outside of the cryptocurrency top ten tokens by value, as measured by Binance-owned crypto data website CoinMarketCap, has doubled since its March lows.

Bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency market, including stellar, crashed last month as the coronavirus pandemic brought the world economy to its knees.

Bitcoin has, meanwhile, added around 70% since the crash but has failed to recapture its momentum from earlier in the year.

The exact cause for stellar's sudden surge, which has seen the XLM price climb by around 40% in just the last seven days, was not immediately clear, however, some have pointed to positive buzz as potentially pushing up the price.

"Stellar has continued its phenomenal month of April with social dominance and social volume continuing to surge as the crowd figures out whether its run can continue," crypto-analytics platform Santiment said via Twitter.

Meanwhile, investors around the world are looking forward to a post-coronavirus economy and betting cryptocurrencies could come out ahead.

"Cryptocurrencies will likely be just as vulnerable to global threats as other assets of any kind," said Alex Kuptsikevich, senior financial analyst at FxPro. "However, the difference may lie in the future. After all, some assets may lose their buyers forever, while others will build a new structure on the ruins. In the new economy, there will be a much larger space for purely digital projects."