Litecoin, Cardano, Stellar, and Chainlink All Outperformed Bitcoin This Week. Which Rally Has the Strongest Support?
Four altcoins crushed Bitcoin's gains this week, but the catalysts driving each rally tell very different stories about which one actually deserves its new price.
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In the week leading up to September 25, 2026, Litecoin (CRYPTO:LTC), Cardano (CRYPTO:ADA), Stellar (CRYPTO:XLM), and Chainlink (CRYPTO:LINK) all outperformed Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC). Their gains ranged from 16.7% to 28.7%, while Bitcoin rose 8.4%. Different news drove each rally, including a Litecoin fund filing and a Chainlink partnership with IT company Infosys.
Among these four altcoins, Litecoin had the biggest gain at 28.7%, climbing to $71. Cardano rose by 17.9% to reach $0.25, Stellar increased by 16.9% to $0.22, and Chainlink jumped 16.7% to $14. So, which of these rallies has the most support behind it?
Litecoin Gained the Most, but Its ETF News Brings Little New Money
Litecoin’s impressive gain largely stems from a fund filing. On September 11, Grayscale submitted a request to convert its Litecoin Trust, which has been trading over the counter since 2018, into an ETF on NYSE Arca. However, the SEC must still approve the conversion.
While converting the trust allows its existing Litecoin, worth around $82 million as of June, to trade as an ETF, it does not bring in new buyers just yet. The first U.S. spot Litecoin ETF, launched by Canary, has traded since October 2025 but had only about $7 million in it by early September.
Despite this, traders have pushed Litecoin’s price up, with it swinging between $62 and $80 on September 24 before closing near $72. Over the past month, it has gained 41.7%.
Stellar and Cardano Rallied on News That Barely Touches Their Tokens
Stellar’s main catalyst emerged around September 22, when BVNK, a stablecoin payments firm set to be acquired by Mastercard, announced it would support Stellar payments in over 130 markets. IBM’s September 24 announcement, by contrast, had no link to Stellar, since its custody platform connects to SWIFT’s shared ledger, a separate blockchain.
Stellar charges a minimal fee of 0.00001 XLM per transaction, meaning high payment volumes require very little of its token. Trading volume also dropped, with around 88 million XLM, worth about $19 million, changing hands on September 24—down from 131 million, worth about $29 million, on September 21. XLM is currently trading slightly below its recent high of around $0.225 on September 23.
Cardano’s news is even less substantial. While Fireblocks, a custody platform widely used by banks and trading firms, included ADA in its offerings back in 2021, its recent update on September 24 announced support for Cardano Native Tokens, which are coins issued by other projects on Cardano, and is set to take effect by March 2027. ADA is still down about 25% this year and a staggering 89% over the past five years.
Chainlink Fell on Its Infosys Deal, Then Led the Market Two Days Later
Chainlink made headlines on September 22 with the announcement that Infosys, an IT firm catering to 1.7 billion customer accounts through its banking software, will standardize six Chainlink services. Initially, this news caused LINK to drop by 4.4% within 24 hours since the deal did not specify which banks would be involved, the timeline, or the associated fees.
However, buyers quickly returned, lifting LINK’s price from around $12 after the initial drop to $14, with a notable 12.2% gain in the 24 hours leading up to September 25—the largest daily increase among the top 26 cryptocurrencies. Notably, the Infosys partnership follows a previous deal with Bottomline, a major SWIFT service provider that deals with $16 trillion annually for over 600 banks.
LINK is up about 9% for 2026, making it one of only two of the four coins in positive territory this year, alongside Stellar, which is up about 11%. However, LINK remains down about 43% from a year ago.
Which Rally Has the Strongest Support?
Chainlink’s rally appears to have the most substantial backing. It secured two banking technology partnerships in a month and has also shown an upward trend for 2026, with buyers returning after the initial dip. Stellar comes in second because its live payment support requires very little XLM.
While Litecoin achieved the highest percentage gain, it does so with the least convincing evidence, as converting the fund alone does not attract new investors. Cardano’s updates mainly focus on support for other tokens rather than ADA itself.
The key takeaway is that for these deals to translate into meaningful value, they need to drive real-world token usage. If a bank announces a live Chainlink rollout with a clear timeline, it could widen Chainlink’s lead. Likewise, if the SEC approves Grayscale’s Litecoin fund and it generates consistent inflows, Litecoin’s rally could gain the support it currently lacks.
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Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst who's spent nearly a decade making blockchain understandable—no easy task when most whitepapers read like fever dreams. He writes for 24/7 Wall St., covering Bitcoin, altcoins, and crypto market analysis for investors. Before crypto, he was a tech writer (back when explaining "the cloud" was peak innovation). Since 2018, he's written for CoinTelegraph, Yahoo Finance, The Block, Cryptonews, Zypto, Rain, and more—basically anywhere people want crypto news without the headache. Sam runs MacLabs Marketing, a content agency for crypto brands tired of sounding like AI wrote their website. He also publishes free crypto education on his site for Web3 enthusiasts who think "gas fees" is a typo. When he's not writing or staring at charts, Sam's either: - Watching anime (currently convinced One Piece has better tokenomics than most altcoins) - At the gym sculpting himself into a Greek god - Listening to the music your mum warned you only bad boys listen to Connect: LinkedIn | Email | MacLabs Marketing
