Stellar is reportedly in negotiations to acquire blockchain startup Chain, in a deal expected to gulp about $500 million.
These are no easy times for cryptocurrency projects as there is stiff competition for market share with the emergence of several interesting blockchain platforms. To hasten growth in the industry, blockchain and cryptocurrency outfits have considered strategic mergers and high profile acquisitions.
Coinbase acquired EARN.com, Circle acquired Poloniex Exchange. However, the most remarkable is Tron’s acquisition of torrent sharing platform bitTorrent, which has over 140 million subscribers on its p2p network.
Stellar seems to be taking a cue from Tron. By acquiring Chain, it would further build its portfolio as it aims to attract developers to its platform and investors to its XLM token.
Chain is a San Francisco-based blockchain startup. It’s major product, Sequence is a ledger-as-a-service that enables organizations to securely track and transfer balances in a token format. This product will be important to Stellar as it will make Stellar platform accessible to software developers.
Chain previously raised over $43 million in funding from investors including Pantera Capital, Nasdaq, Visa, Citi Ventures, Thrive Capital and Blockchain Capital.
If the deal goes through, the payment will be made using Stellar Lumens [XRP] which can be held or sold after the transaction. This will present a major test to the cryptocurrency which currently has a total market capitalization of over $4.3 billion.
Stellar prices are currently down, just like the most of the cryptocurrency market. It is currently $0.19 against the dollar, down 3.4% in the last 24 hours with a market cap of $3,557,397,072 (ranked 7th). If $500 million for the deal leaves the ecosystem, this would cause a further decline in the XLM price.
Stellar’s first goal will be to stay relevant given the competition by other coins. However, it is expected to reach its huge potentials and become a major player for business system interconnectivity. The acquisition of Chain will definitely help its cause just as interests from IBM and Kik app to develop on Stellar.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://smartereum.com/21197/stellar-xlm-negotiates-500-million-deal-for-a-new-acquisition/