# Stellar review: Trust Score 72/100 (Solid)

Source page: https://vaultx.llc/reviews/stellar · independent VaultX review by Rex · updated 2026-11-06

Stellar: a 12-year-old working network with no legal actions found, but a price far below its 2018 peak

Stellar has run since 2014 and is backed by the nonprofit Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), which was founded by named people. In the research reviewed, no regulator warning, lawsuit or court case was found against Stellar, the SDF or XLM. The notable theft involving XLM, a reported breach at Mercado Bitcoin, hit an exchange rather than the Stellar protocol. Weak points are that tokenomics, fundraising and the SDF's legal jurisdiction could not be verified from these sources, SEC filings by third parties warn XLM could be classed as a security, and the price is roughly 80% below its January 2018 high. This review is not investment advice.

**Red flags**
- The price is far below the January 2018 high of about $0.94, and trackers show around $0.15–0.16 in early Nov 2026. That is roughly an 80%+ drop, short of a 90% crash.
- The price reportedly fell from about $0.215 on 5 Oct 2026 to about $0.155 on 5 Nov 2026.
- The Mercado Bitcoin breach reportedly cost 6.7 million XLM (about $40M), per U.Today as listed by Dextape. This was an exchange incident, not a protocol failure.
- The notes contain no official breakdown of total supply, issuance rules or funds raised, so these cannot be verified here.
- The SDF's jurisdiction is not stated in the sources reviewed.
- Grayscale's SEC filings warn that XLM may be classified as a security or a commodity interest, so future regulatory action could affect it.
- Much of the news coverage is price-prediction content, which is not evidence about the project's quality.

**Green flags**
- The network has run continuously since 2014.
- Named founder Jed McCaleb and a nonprofit foundation created with Patrick Collison of Stripe, per Wikipedia.
- No regulator warning, lawsuit, class action, police case or court case against Stellar or XLM was found in the SEC and CFTC material reviewed.
- The SDF told the SEC that XLM is recognized as a 'digital commodity' in the SEC/CFTC March 2026 joint interpretive release.
- CFTC filings show XLM-related futures or event contracts approved or listed, which is oversight rather than enforcement.
- XLM trades on major exchanges including Kraken, Crypto.com, Gate and bitFlyer.
- Independent reporting shows growing tokenized-asset activity on Stellar, and users report real everyday uses such as payments.

**Sources**
- coinmarketcap.com https://coinmarketcap.com/cmc-ai/stellar/latest-updates/
- bullrunners.com https://www.bullrunners.com/blog/stellar-protocol-30-bell-quantum-signatures/
- cryptoticker.io https://cryptoticker.io/en/stellar-protocol-30-bell-vote/
- systemtotoken.com https://systemtotoken.com/assets/xlm/
- tradingview.com https://www.tradingview.com/news/u_today:043f97532094b:0-stellar-xlm-slated-for-2027-as-dtcc-unlocks-30-trillion-tokenization-market/
- finance.yahoo.com https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/wall-street-biggest-settlement-firm-210139490.html

Not financial advice. Nobody can pay for a VaultX review.

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