Stellar Hits 217.4 TPS as RWA Funds Flood Network
Stellar (XLM)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
crypto-economy.com reports that Stellar reached a transaction-speed record of 217.4 transactions per second on September 26, surpassing a previous peak set less than two weeks earlier. This throughput increase coincided with XLM trading near $0.2297 and was driven by Protocol 28, also known as Adapter, which activated in mid-September. The protocol introduced an accelerated consensus mechanism allowing validators to begin voting before every transaction in a batch is fully delivered, reducing delays during heavy demand.
Institutional real-world asset activity further increased network load, with Stellar ranking fourth among blockchains by RWA value at approximately $3.38 billion across 72 active projects. The largest position is the Spiko Amundi Overnight Swap Fund at about $1.16 billion, followed by Ondo’s USDY near $536 million and Franklin Templeton’s BENJI around $431 million. These products contribute to issuance, redemption, and yield-accrual activity, making institutional tokenization a practical source of network usage.
Stablecoins on Stellar host about $437.73 million but process roughly $9.44 billion in monthly transfer volume, indicating high turnover. The combination of tokenized funds, stablecoin transfers, and optimized consensus helps explain why real-time throughput now regularly runs between 120 and 180 TPS. The new record remains below Stellar’s theoretical ceiling of 3,351 TPS, leaving substantial capacity available for continued growth.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for XLM, measured when this story was written up on 28 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Whalio data shows XLM trading at $0.2158, with a 1-hour buy ratio of 52.1% indicating short-term buying pressure, while the 4-hour ratio has dropped to 47.8%. Over the past 24 hours, the buy ratio stands at 48.7%, suggesting that immediate buying momentum is fading compared to the last hour. The 1-hour volume delta is positive at +$73,676, but the 4-hour delta is negative at -$921,187, showing that larger timeframes are seeing net selling. The 24-hour volume delta is -$423,302, with a cumulative CVD of +$195,716, meaning that while net buying occurred over the day, recent volume has been dominated by sellers. Spot volume for the period was $16,351,085 across 70,680 trades, with net buying occurring in 15 of the 24 hours.
The latest daily buy ratio of 49.1% sits at the 31st percentile of the last 323 days, against a median of 50.7% - ordinary for this coin.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for XLM, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, the average buy ratio was 50.7%, making today’s 24-hour ratio of 48.7% slightly below the weekly norm by 2.0 points. Volume relative to the weekly average is at 0.50x, indicating that trading activity is half of what is typical for this period. The coin saw a price increase of 9.4% over eight days, supported by a total volume delta of +$2,790,811. This week saw net buying on 4 of 7 days, contrasting with today’s mixed signals where recent hours favored sellers despite earlier accumulation. This represents an unusual day for the coin, characterized by lower-than-average volume and a shift toward selling pressure in the immediate term.