Stellar Lumens surged to the top of the cryptocurrency gainers on Wednesday as the price soared to a two-month high of around $0.31 at press time. At 18:00CET on Binance the price was $0.30 with turnover exceeding the $24 million mark – a clear indicator that there was huge interest in the coin from investors. This rise could be due to a number of factors although the recent surge in the price of Bitcoin has given almost all currencies a leg up. However, the announcement that Stellar would be having its own USD trading pair undoubtedly had a positive effect on the price. The announcement was made by Stronghold, a San Francisco-based financial institution that has been developing an asset agnostic payment and trade ecosystem, The company launched an asset backed token on the Stellar network which is in turn the first venture supported USD anchor for the network. The short-lived announcement by Coinbase in which it had previously been indicated that the Securities and Exchange Commission had accepted three acquisitions by the exchange giant was also a positive factor in the rise. The announcement by IBM that it would also be including a cryptocurrency on the Stellar blockchain must have been an important factor in the meteoric rise in the price of the cryptocurrency. Stellar had been rather sluggish in recent weeks having traded at well below the $0.20 level for several weeks before it began rising over the weekend and in the past few days. However, the 30% rise of the past few hours was undoubtedly an incredible boost and shows that positive news does move the markets. The Stellar Network certainly has a lot going for it, but it’s not going to be an easy stroll into complete adoption although these announcements are certainly a good step forward. Currently, Steller Lumens are only supported by a handful of somewhat obscure wallets and only the Ledger hardware wallet, and most major multi-asset wallets such as Exodus and Jaxx do not support it. The Coinbase announcement could have set the ball rolling for a multi adoption of the Stellar network but so far at least the acquisitions will not be happening. There have also been rumours that the Stellar network could be used in Islamic finance methodology that could open the market to hundreds of billions of dollars in capital movements. It has also been announced that Stellar is actually the first Sharia-compliant network so if this is to do with the price rise, then more good news could be on the way for investors. It is conceivable, however, that once greater adoption occurs, multi-asset wallet makers and Stellar itself will likely come out with their support for or the development of entirely new user-friendly wallets for the asset. Indeed if Stellar Lumens is able to get to separate fiat currency on and off ramps, it could spell for a bright future for the network, and for wider uses and appreciation of the Lumens asset. Featured image from Shutterstock