Stellar is a cryptocurrency that is not that different from Ripple. Both projects were founded by the same smart cookie, Jed McCaleb, and both offer virtually instant and free cross-border payments.
If you like the sound of this digital currency project and want to invest in Stellar XLM right now, be sure to read our newbie guide first.
We will walk you through how to invest in Stellar and discuss some of the risks you should consider before taking the plunge.
Table of contents:
How to invest in Stellar (XLM) in 5 easy steps
What is Stellar (XLM)?
How does the Invest In Stellar Lumens (XLM) process work?
Why invest in Stellar (XLM)?
Astronomical financial returns since its launch in 2014
The technology is revolutionary
Partnerships
Stellar Lumens is cheap
How to invest in Stellar (XLM) – Various available options
Stellar Lumens ATMs
Stellar Lumens Exchange Platform
Stellar Lumens Broker
How to choose a platform to invest in Stellar (XLM)
Licensing and reputation
Fees for investing in Stellar
Stellar Lumens investment and minimum payouts
Storage and cashing out
Tips on how to invest in Stellar (XLM) and make a profit
Tip 1: Set some financial goals
Tip 2: Dollar-cost average your Stellar Investments
Tip 3: Diversify Your Stellar Investment
How to invest in Stellar (XLM) today – Step by Step Tutorial
Step 1: Open an account
Step 2: Upload an ID
Step 3: Make a deposit
Step 4: Search for Stellar
Step 5: Complete Stellar Investment
Step 6: Withdraw your Stellar investment
How to Invest in Stellar (XLM) – The Final Result
Table of Contents:
5 EASY STEPS ON HOW TO INVEST IN STELLAR (XLM)
The first step to investing in Stellar is to open an account with a regulated exchange, deposit funds, select XLM from the list of platforms and finally confirm that the coins have been added to your wallet.
Step 1: Open an account with a regulated exchange such as
Step 2: Deposit some funds
Step 3: Choose how many star lumens you want to buy
Step 4: Confirm the investment
Step 5: Leave your Stellar digital coins in storage
While most of our readers would like the full information before making a cryptocurrency-related investment, some of you may want to get involved straight away. If so, follow the steps outlined above to find out how to invest in Stellar in less than 5 minutes.
As you can see, investing online in Stellar couldn’t be easier!
WHAT IS STELLAR (XLM)?
Founded in 2014, Stellar is an open-source payment network and a cryptocurrency. As for the former, the technology enables lightning-fast cross-border payments.
Regardless of where the sender and receiver are located, the network usually takes only a couple of seconds to confirm that the transaction is valid.
Unlike traditional payment networks, sending and receiving money through Stellar is super cheap. In real terms, this is usually less than a penny.
Stellar is also behind a very popular cryptocurrency in addition to its proprietary, open-source payment network. Known as ‘Stellar Lumens’, it has remained one of the top 15 digital currencies in terms of market capitalisation virtually since its launch.
Like any other cryptocurrency in space, Stellar Lumens has value in the real world dictated by market forces and is financially realisable through third-party exchanges.
This brings us nicely to the next section of our How to Invest in Stellar Guide, where we discuss the investment process in a little more details.
HOW DOES THE INVEST IN STELLAR LUMENS (XLM) PROCESS WORK?
The easiest and safest way to invest in Stellar is to use a regulated online broker in terms of the fundamentals. However, before getting to that, you must first understand how the value of your investment will rise or fall.
Like any other financial asset, the value of Stellar Lumens is dictated by demand and supply.
For example, when there is good news surrounding the project, such as a partnership with a leading financial institution, demand for Stellar will increase. In turn, as more people seek to invest in Stellar, the price of its digital currency will rise.
But, of course, if Stellar receives any negative news, then demand will decline. So, naturally, this means that the value of your Stellar investment will fall.
While this may be a simple principle for most of you, here is a simple example of how a Stellar investment works.
- You invest in Stellar with a stake of $500.
- When you invest, the price of 1 Stellar Lumen is $0.32
- You hold on to your Stellar investment for 5 years
- When it’s time to withdraw money, 1 Stellar Lumen is worth $4.50.
- This means the cryptocurrency is worth 1,400% more than it originally paid.
- You exit the position and withdraw the proceeds to your debit card.
You made a 1,400% return on your original $500 investment based on the hypothetical example above. As a result, you were able to withdraw a total of $7,500.
While returns of this magnitude may seem far-fetched, it’s not. As we explain in more detail shortly, early Stellar investors have achieved significantly higher returns.
WHY INVEST IN STELLAR (XLM)?
When you invest in Stellar Lumens, you are backing the wider project. That is, if Stellar as a payment network eventually becomes mainstream, the value of your investment is likely to benefit greatly.
That said, we need to explore some of the reasons why you might be motivated to invest in both Stellar and your Lumens cryptocurrency.
Exceptional financial returns since its launch in 2014
One of the main reasons why people invest in cryptocurrencies is that they expect to make significant gains. After all, digital currencies are more speculative and highly volatile, so investors expect above-average returns for taking on a higher level of risk.
In the case of Stellar, this cryptocurrency has grown exponentially since its launch in 2014. Back then, you would have paid a fraction of a cent for a single Lumen.
To be more precise, Stellar Lumens first hit a third-party cryptocurrency exchange at $0.002, which means that for just $1, you would have received 500 Stellar Lumens.
Now let’s fast forward a bit to January 2018, when Stellar last hit all-time highs. This peak saw the digital currency surpass the $0.89 mark.
In simple terms, this means that compared to its initial listing price of $0.002, the value of Stellar Lumens grew by more than 44,000%. In other words, if you had invested $2,500, your money would have been worth over a million dollars during this peak.
Although Stellar Lumens has since cooled, the cryptocurrency had a remarkable 2020. Reaching lows of $0.03 in March, Stellar broke $0.22 in November. That’s a speculator gain of more than 630% in 7 months of trading.
Technology is revolutionary
The Stellar payment network is nothing short of revolutionary when it comes to the underlying product itself.
For those who don’t know, the main target market for the Stellar network is businesses that need to transfer funds across borders. As you can probably imagine, this is a multi-billion dollar industry.
Currently, companies are forced to go through bank intermediaries. The traditional process is slow, costly, and full of bureaucracy, especially in emerging nations because cross-border transactions must go through SWIFT.
The SWIFT “network” is not really a network at all. Instead, the Belgian-based facilitator is simply a conglomerate of financial institutions. In turn, cross-border payments often have to be routed through many stakeholders, including the banks concerned.
When it comes to Stellar, its payment network is fast, cheap and super convenient. Transactions often take just seconds to arrive, and fees are a fraction of a cent.
The network is especially useful when sending ‘exotic’ currencies, as Stellar Lumens acts as a liquidity bridge.
Partnerships
A cryptocurrency project can claim to have the best technology known to humankind. But, if any large-scale players do not back it, it’s not going to get very far. In the case of Stellar, the project has formed some super-notable partnerships since it launched in 2014.
At the forefront of this is leading tech giant IBM. Crucially, IBM is using the Stellar network at the moment to facilitate some of its cross-border payments. These are internal payments that are sent between IBM regions.
Stellar Lumens is cheap
On the one hand, the cost of a single cryptocurrency does not dictate how much it is worth per se. Instead, it would help if you based your valuation on the market capitalisation of the respective digital currency.
However, investing in a “cheap” cryptocurrency like Stellar Lumens has benefits. After all, there is nothing attractive about buying a small “fraction” of a Bitcoin. Considering that Stella Lumens has never exceeded $0.89, this allows you to build a large stake in terms of quantity.
For example, based on a price of $0.32 at the time of writing, an investment of $320 would give you 1,000 coins. So if Stellar one day makes it big, then you will have a considerable stake in the project.
Would you consider investing in Stellar XLM?
HOW TO INVEST IN STELLAR (XLM) – VARIOUS OPTIONS AVAILABLE
Given that Stellar Lumens has a multi-million dollar valuation, it makes sense that there are several methods you can take to invest. While we firmly believe that the easiest way to do this is through a regulated broker, other mechanisms exist.
As such, we will now discuss some of the popular ways you can invest in Stellar.
Stellar Lumens ATMs
There are more than 13,000 cryptocurrency ATMs worldwide, most of which allow you to buy Bitcoin. However, while many ATMs also allow you to buy other popular digital currencies, namely Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin, Stellar has no support.
Stellar Lumens Exchange Platform
You may be tempted to invest in Stellar Lumens through a third-party exchange. However, in most cases, these cryptocurrency exchanges operate without a licence. Platforms can circumvent this when they have no relationship with fiat currency.
While this allows you to invest in Stellar anonymously and often in conjunction with leverage, your capital is at serious risk. After all, you wouldn’t use an unregulated broker to invest in stocks, ETFs or mutual funds.
In addition to being too risky, unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges offer a highly cumbersome investment process.
For example, you must initially fund your account with a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. Then, when transferring funds from your private wallet, you must manually exchange BTC with Stellar Lumens.
Then, as you probably don’t want to keep your Stellar coins on an unregulated exchange, you will need to withdraw them to a private wallet. This in itself will not be suitable for beginners in the room.
Stellar Lumens Broker
If you are wondering how to buy Stellar in a regulated environment while at the same time benefiting from low fees and lots of convenient payment methods, look no further than an online broker.
Again, there are several players in this space, some better than others. However, investing in Stellar through an online broker is usually very simple.
For example, if you use eToro, you can open an account in minutes and then make an instant deposit using a debit card, credit card, PayPal, Skrill, or Neteller. Then, it’s just a case of selecting Stellar Lumens from the platform’s 16 supported cryptocurrencies and entering the amount you wish to invest.
Once you have completed the process, which shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes from start to finish, you can leave your Stellar Lumens with eToro.
This is because it is backed by three regulatory bodies: the FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia) and CySEC (Cyprus). If you are a US investor, you will be pleased to know that eToro is also registered with FINRA.
HOW TO CHOOSE A PLATFORM TO INVEST IN STELLAR (XLM)
So now that you know that the best way to invest in Stellar Lumens is through a reputable online broker, we now need to help you separate the wheat from the chaff.
Again, this is because there is a selection of online platforms that support Stellar purchases, so you need to know how to choose the right one for your needs.
Let’s start with regulation.
Licensing and reputation
As discussed above, the vast majority of cryptocurrency platforms, even those that dominate the space, are unregulated. As such, your first port of call will be to assess whether or not the broker owns a licence.
If so, you should determine how reputable the respective body is. For example, a Stellar Lumens broker regulated in the UK by the FCA will be significantly more credible than one based in Panama or the Cayman Islands.
In addition, the regulatory body in question may need to be based in your country of residence.
For example, if you are based in the US, you must ensure that the Stellar Lumens broker is registered with FINRA. Again, this is why we suggest eToro, as it is home to many reputable licenses.
Stellar investment fees
You will always be charged a fee of some kind when you invest online, and Stellar Lumens is no different. For example, you may be charged a fee to fund your brokerage account. However, at eToro, this will cost you only 0.5% and nothing if you are depositing in US dollars.
Binance is much more expensive, charging a 2% fee on debit/credit cards. Coinbase is even more expensive, with the popular broker charging 3.99% on debit card purchases.
Once you have assessed what the platform charges on payments, you need to look at merchant fees. This will usually come in the form of a percentage fee calculated based on your stake.
For example, Coinjar charges 1% on cryptocurrency investments, while Coinbase charges 1.49%. These variable fees are charged when you invest in Stellar and again when you cash out.
These fees will ultimately eat into your potential profits. As such, if you’re wondering how investing in Stellar Lumens is the most profitable way possible: eToro charges zero fees.
Stellar Lumens investment and minimum payments
Every financial instrument comes with a risk/reward ratio. That is, the more you expect to make from an investment, the more risk you should be prepared to take.
At the lower end, you have the likes of US Treasuries and high-grade equities. At the other end of the spectrum, you have cryptocurrencies like Stellar Lumens. As such, we suggest you find an online broker that allows you to invest small amounts.
The broker in question must not charge a flat commission; otherwise, your small purchases will eat into the fees. And don’t forget: the broker must accept your preferred payment type.
eToro stands out in this regard for three key reasons. Firstly, the minimum amount you can invest in Stellar Lumens is only $25. This is a negligible amount that allows you to invest regularly.
Secondly, the platform is commission-free, so you won’t be penalised for investing small amounts. Thirdly, eToro accepts debit/credit cards, bank transfers and even e-wallets, so you’re sure to find a payment method you like.
Storage and collection
We pointed out earlier that using an unregulated exchange is dangerous for several reasons. At the forefront of this was the possibility of the platform being hacked, meaning there is a high chance of your Stellar Lumens coins being stolen.
To counter this, it is recommended to withdraw your digital coins to a private wallet. However, this is not only cumbersome when it comes to cashing out, but you also need to have a basic understanding of wallet addresses, private keys, secure storage.
That is why it is best to use an online broker that is regulated. By doing so, you can be sure that the platform follows institutional-grade security practices to keep your investment safe.
And, of course, when it comes to selling your Stellar Lumens, you can do so at the click of a button without the need to transfer the coins from an external wallet!
Ready to invest in Stellar XLM?
TIPS ON HOW TO INVEST IN STELLAR (XLM) AND PROFIT FROM IT
There is no guarantee that you will profit when you invest in Stellar. However, you can follow several simple strategies to give yourself the best possible chance.
We’ve hand-picked three, which you’ll find below!
Tip 1: Set some financial goals
It is always advisable to have a rough idea of how much money you are looking to make from your stellar investment. After all, there will eventually come a time when you choose to withdraw money. Rather than leaving this to fate, why not set yourself a clear financial target?
This can be based on the future value of Stellar Lumens itself or the amount of profit you are looking to make before cashing out.
For example:
- Let’s say you invested in Stellar when the digital currency was worth $0.15.
- You want to withdraw your position when your investment has made a 500% profit.
- As such, your withdrawal threshold would be $0.89.
If you have set a clear price target, as in the example above, it is best to set up an order for profit-taking with your This means that if Stellar Lumens reaches a price of $0.89, the broker will automatically close your position.
Tip 2: Dollar-cost averaging of your star investments
Dollar-cost averaging is the process of investing small but regular amounts in an asset. The general concept is that you can avoid the complexities of short-term volatility by “cost averaging” your cost price each time you invest.
However, to do this, you will need to use a broker that supports small minimum investments. As we covered above, this is only $25 when investing in Stellar Lumens.
If you decide to adopt a dollar-cost averaging strategy, it is best to be systematic about it. For example, you may decide to invest $50 on the 20th of each month or $100 every Friday.
Tip 3: Diversify your stellar investment
Stellar is one cryptocurrency out of thousands, just as Apple is one stock. You would not invest your entire portfolio in Apple or any individual stock. Instead, it is likely to diversify across a wide range of companies and sectors.
This risk-averse attitude to investing should also apply to Stellar Lumens. That is, instead of putting all your eggs in this cryptocurrency, you should also consider diversifying into other projects.
For example, you can allocate 10% to Stellar, 30% to Stellar Bitcoin, 20% in Ethereum, and the balance elsewhere.
HOW TO INVEST IN STELLAR (XLM) TODAY – STEP BY STEP TUTORIAL
To conclude our guide, we will now take you through the process of how to invest in Stellar Lumens with a regulated broker.
Step 1: Opening an account
First, visit the eToro website and open an account. You will need to provide a variety of personal information and contact details. You will also need to choose a username and password before verifying your mobile phone number.
Step 2: Upload an ID
eToro will ask you to upload a copy of your government-issued ID. You will also be asked for proof of address, a recently issued bank statement or a utility bill.
This request ensures that eToro remains in compliance with its licensing issuers. Once you upload the requested documents, eToro can usually validate them in less than a few minutes.
Step 3: Make a deposit
You will now need to deposit a minimum of $200.
As briefly covered above, eToro supports a wide selection of payment methods. If you want to invest in Stellar instantly, opt for a debit/credit card, PayPal, Skrill or Neteller.
If you prefer to fund your account with a local bank transfer, this will delay the investment process for several days.
Don’t forget that if you are using a payment method not denominated in US dollars, a 0.5% fx fee will apply.
Step 4: Search for Stellar
Once your eToro deposit has been credited, enter ‘Stellar’ in the search box at the top of the page. When ‘XLM’ loads, click on it. On the next page, click on the blue ‘Trade’ button.
Make your Stellar XLM investment now!
Step 5: Complete the stellar inversion
Now it is just a case of entering your stake in the ‘Amount’ box; this can be any amount over $25.
Other order types are available to you, such as switching from a market order to a limit order. In addition, you can also set a stop-loss and take-profit order, which is ideal for risk management purposes.
Finally, press the ‘Open Trade’ button to complete your Stellar investment without commissions.
Step 6: Withdraw your star investment
Once you have completed the investment process, you can leave the coins safely in your eToro wallet. In addition, there are no monthly or annual maintenance fees on the platform, so you can keep your Stellar Lumens for as long as you wish.
When you decide to withdraw money, you need to go to your wallet and click on the ‘Sell’ button next to Stellar. The proceeds will then be available for withdrawal.
HOW TO INVEST IN STELLAR (XLM) – THE FINAL RESULT
Stellar is one of the most exciting cryptocurrency projects to date, with its technology having the features needed to challenge SWIFT. This is evident as IBM is already using the Stellar network, with more large-scale providers likely to follow suit shortly.
