Stellar Lumens (XLM) experienced significant selling pressure from institutions between Oct. 16 and 17, dropping 6.25% from $0.32 to $0.30 in just 23 hours of trading.
During this period, trading volume increased to 89.11 million tokens, with the highest liquidation happening between 06:00 and 08:00 GMT on October 17. Analysts noted that this was more due to orchestrated profit-taking by institutions rather than retail panic, as corporate treasury managers recalibrated positions in response to technical resistance thresholds.
In the last trading hour, XLM exhibited typical institutional rebalancing activity, oscillating within a 1.99% price range from $0.299 to $0.305 before finally closing at $0.303. This behavior reflected algorithmic trading systems completing their cycles as institutional desks wrapped up short-term reallocations.
Despite the short-term fluctuations, the rollout of Protocol 23 by the Stellar Development Foundation has bolstered the network’s long-term viability. This upgrade enhanced transaction capacity to 5,000 operations per second by improving smart contract parallel processing, thereby setting Stellar up for greater acceptance among regulated financial entities.
An analysis of market structure indicated persistent institutional trading trends, with algorithms establishing concrete resistance at $0.31 and support around $0.30. Two distinct phases of trading were noticed—initial corporate purchasing followed by tactical profit-taking—leading to price stabilization near $0.303 as institutional rebalancing was concluded.

Technical Analysis
- Institutional trading volume peaked at 91.33 million tokens during key liquidation periods, far surpassing the average of 43.47 million for corporate trading sessions.
- Well-defined resistance at $0.31 indicates compliance with institutional profit-taking procedures and risk management systems.
- Corporate support levels emerged near $0.29 during peak liquidation pressures from treasury management actions.
- Volume-weighted institutional selling trends suggest ongoing corporate rebalancing as Q4 earnings approach.
- Consolidation around $0.303 during the final hour with declining institutional activity hints at the completion of systematic position adjustments.
- Attempts at corporate recovery showed fleeting institutional purchasing interest but failed to maintain above the resistance at $0.305.
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