Stellar Now Hosts More Tokenized Assets Than the XRP Ledger. Why Is XRP Still Worth Nearly 13 Times More?

Stellar hosts more tokenized real-world assets than the XRP Ledger, yet XLM trades at a fraction of XRP's price. The reason comes down to a structural flaw in how Stellar's tokenization boom actually works.

Published October 11, 2026, 6:14pm ET · 4 min read

The Crypto Desk desk. Editor: Sam Daodu.

Stellar XLM Cryptocurrency physical coin placed on computer keyboard and lit with purple light.
© DIAMOND VISUALS / Shutterstock.com

Stellar (CRYPTO:XLM) has emerged as a leader in hosting tokenized real-world assets, boasting a total of $3.5 billion. This figure puts it ahead of every other chain, including the XRP Ledger, which hosts $2.5 billion in tokenized assets. However, Stellar’s coin, XLM, has not seen a corresponding price increase. As of October 11, 2026, XLM trades at $0.20, bringing Stellar’s total market value to $6.85 billion.

In contrast, XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) is valued at $1.39, giving it a market capitalization of $88 billion. This means XRP is now worth 12.8 times more than Stellar, even though its ledger hosts less tokenized value. Additionally, XLM’s price is down 77.7% from its January 2018 high of $0.88, while XRP is currently 61.8% below its July 2025 peak. So why does a blockchain with more tokenized assets have a lower coin value?

Stellar Leads the XRP Ledger With $3.5 Billion in Tokenized Assets

A silver Stellar (XLM) cryptocurrency coin, featuring a rocket design and the words "STELLAR" and "XLM," stands upright in the foreground. Behind it, a blurred U.S. one-dollar bill is visible. The coin is highly reflective on the surface, and the overall lighting is dim, creating a focused contrast between the digital currency and traditional money.

DIAMOND VISUALS / Shutterstock.com

A tokenized real-world asset represents financial products, such as Treasury bills or money market funds, recorded on a blockchain. This allows for ownership transfers without the usual banking processes. For example, a money market fund is a low-risk investment that primarily holds short-term government debt and cash. In this context, a token serves as a digital receipt for the asset.

Stellar’s $3.5 billion in tokenized assets places it in the lead, followed closely by Solana at $3 billion, the XRP Ledger at $2.5 billion, and Avalanche at $1.7 billion. Much of Stellar’s value comes from a Franklin Templeton (NYSE:BEN | BEN Price Prediction) money market fund and tokenized U.S. Treasuries. Meanwhile, Circle (NYSE:CRCL) provides the cash component through its USDC and EURC stablecoins, pegged to the U.S. dollar and the euro, respectively, to facilitate payments for fund shares during transactions.

Previously, reports showed the XRP Ledger led in tokenized commodities with $2.2 billion, compared to Ethereum‘s $1.6 billion. Both rankings remain, with the XRP Ledger maintaining its leadership in commodities and Stellar excelling in overall tokenized asset value thanks to its Treasury and money market products.

Why Stellar’s Tokenized Assets Don’t Drive Demand for XLM

The term Stellar cryptocurrency refers to a digital or virtual currency developed by Stellar Development Foundation

Rokas Tenys / Shutterstock.com

While the ranking reflects the dollar value of assets on each chain, it doesn’t account for activity, revenue, or demand for the underlying cryptocurrencies. A tokenized fund that remains static ranks the same as one that sees frequent trading.

Stellar exemplifies the disconnect between asset value and demand for XLM. Although Stellar transaction fees are paid in XLM, they are only fractions of a cent. Consequently, users have little incentive to hold significant amounts of XLM when moving tokenized funds around the network.

Furthermore, investors holding a tokenized Franklin Templeton fund own a claim solely on the fund itself, which provides exposure to Treasury yields and the fund manager without requiring any ownership of XLM.

XRP Has ETF and Treasury Buyers That XLM Lacks

Detail of a cryptocurrency. XRP, Ripple.

TopMicrobialStock / Shutterstock.com

Stellar lacks key components that bolster demand for XRP: a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) and corporate treasury buyers. A spot ETF directly holds the cryptocurrency and trades on a stock exchange, while corporate treasury buyers are public companies that acquire the coin and hold it on their balance sheets. Without either, institutions have no obligation to purchase XLM when new investments come in.

Conversely, XRP benefits from both attributes. Spot XRP funds currently hold $1.57 billion in assets, according to SoSoValue, and Evernorth, a treasury company set to list on Nasdaq, owns about 473 million XRP, or around $657 million. Additionally, Ripple, the company behind XRP’s payment solutions, supports the market through its own balance sheet.

The disparity between the two coins largely stems from their respective demand dynamics. When fresh investments flow into a spot XRP fund, the fund acquires XRP. In contrast, when money enters a tokenized Treasury fund on Stellar, the fund manager invests in Treasuries instead of XLM.

Will Stellar’s Tokenized Assets Close the Gap With XRP?

It seems unlikely this gap will narrow if the current structure remains unchanged. For XLM holders drawn to tokenization headlines, note that the benefits primarily accrue to entities like Franklin Templeton, Circle, and their investors, as their funds invest in Treasuries and stablecoins. Stellar’s total value increases when fund managers issue new tokens, which doesn’t require buying XLM, so the 12.8x gap between XRP and XLM may persist even as tokenized asset figures grow.

Only if a spot XLM fund emerges, a publicly traded company adopts XLM for its treasury, or a protocol change links tokenized asset activity to XLM purchases might the situation improve. If Stellar’s total tokenized assets continue to grow while all three are still missing, the market will likely keep pricing each coin based on who needs to buy it rather than on the assets its network hosts.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Sam Daodu

Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst and the editor of 24/7 Wall St.'s Crypto Desk, where he covers Bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum, Solana and the altcoins investors search for most. His work focuses on price levels, spot ETF flows, on-chain data and the regulatory decisions that move crypto markets, written so a first-time buyer and a seasoned trader can both use it.
Sam has written about crypto professionally since 2019 and has published more than 2,000 articles. Before joining 24/7 Wall St., he wrote for crypto media outlets and Web3 companies and ghostwrote for crypto founders and token launches. His analysis is syndicated on Yahoo Finance, MSN and AOL and has been cited by other crypto news sites. He also founded MacLabs Marketing, a content and personal branding agency for crypto founders and executives.
When he isn't reading charts, Sam is usually at the gym or watching One Piece, a series he maintains has better tokenomics than most altcoins.

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