Bell upgrade on October 20: What it means for the Stellar price

Published on 10/22/2026 at 18:57 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS

Bell adds three protocol changes. The Stellar price is 0.17875 USD on October 22, 2026, down 2.25 percent, with 35.22 billion XLM in circulation.

Network update and market data

On October 20, Stellar announced Bell for validator approval.
The package contains three protocol changes for smart contracts and ledger data.
The Stellar price stands at 0.17875 USD as of October 22, 2026, 2.25 percent below the UTC daily close of October 21, 2026.
Testnet and mainnet votes are scheduled for November 3, 2026, and November 23, 2026.

Stellar, XCCRYPTOXLM0, Illustration mit AI erstellt.

Stellar (XLM) introduced the Bell upgrade on October 20, a proposed Protocol 30 package with three changes for smart contracts and ledger data. The Stellar price is 0.17875 USD as of October 22, 2026, down 2.25 percent compared with the UTC daily close of October 21, 2026, according to Investing.com.

Bell brings three protocol changes

According to CryptoTicker, the Stellar Development Foundation introduced Bell on October 20, 2026. The package includes multiplexed contract addresses, quantum-safe signature verification inside smart contracts and ledger timestamps recorded in milliseconds.

The address change is designed to let one contract distinguish payments for multiple customers, while the signature feature adds support for post-quantum verification in smart contracts. The same report said Stellar Core v30.0.0 was released on October 16, 2026, and that infrastructure and developer software releases were scheduled through October 23, 2026.

November votes require updated software

The next milestones are a testnet vote on November 3, 2026, and a mainnet validator vote on November 23, 2026, both at 17:00 UTC, according to TokenPost. The mainnet change remains subject to the network approval process.

TokenPost reported on October 21, 2026, that older software development kits may fail to read Protocol 30 ledgers. The report also said the upgrade would not make the entire network post-quantum, because validator messages would continue to use Ed25519 signatures. Stellar described Bell as preparation for smart accounts used by businesses, according to its official announcement on October 20, 2026.

XLM market data on October 22, 2026

The Stellar price stands at 0.17875 USD as of October 22, 2026. It is down 2.25 percent compared with the UTC daily close of October 21, 2026. Investing.com lists a daily high of 0.18442 USD and a daily low of 0.17856 USD, a market capitalization of 6.30 billion USD at rank 17, and 145.74 million USD in 24-hour volume. Circulating supply is 35.22 billion XLM, according to Investing.com.