[This guide was updated in October 2026]
Stellar Lumens (XLM) is one of the largest cryptocurrencies in the market in terms of valuation. In early October 2026 it ranked 20th by market capitalization on CoinGecko, yet many investors around the world do not know how to purchase this virtual currency.
Many are excited about Stellar’s potential to change the world’s financial systems, and we could soon see it follow in the footsteps of Ripple—in fact, IBM is using Stellar to compete with Ripple.
In this guide, we’re going to show you how you can start investing in XLM on one of the world’s largest exchanges, Binance.
What is XLM?
First, there is a classification to be made. Much like Ripple and XRP, Stellar is the blockchain network, and Lumens (or XLM) is the cryptocurrency used on the Stellar network.
The similarities between Stellar and Ripple don’t end there, however. Both networks serve the same function, to enable instant, cheap, cross-border transactions, focused on the banking and financial sectors. In fact, Stellar creator Jed McCaleb was one of Ripple’s co-founders. He served there as CTO before leaving the company to create Stellar.
Stellar’s main concept is to act as a currency exchange protocol. It will let people easily transfer between different currencies, by using Lumens as a go-between. In short, if someone wants to exchange USD to EUR, Stellar will do this by exchanging USD to Lumens, and Lumens to EUR. The network is supported by businesses running individual nodes, making it a little different to regular mining cryptocurrencies.
Stellar works in a very similar way to Ripple. The goal is to make it easier and cheaper for financial companies and individuals around the world to process cross-border transactions. The virtual currency used on the Stellar network is fast and cheap to use, which means that it is very efficient for financial companies and retail investors that want to move funds.
In order to use the Stellar network users will need to have lumens (XLM) to pay for transaction fees and make accounts on the live Stellar network.
Binance now lets you buy XLM directly with a debit or credit card, or swap other coins for it with Binance Convert. This guide covers the spot market route: deposit USDT or Ethereum (ETH), then trade it for Stellar Lumens on Binance.
Although there are many cryptocurrency exchanges around the world, Binance is one of the largest digital asset exchanges in the market by trading volume, according to CoinGecko.
On Binance, XLM can be bought with Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC) and Ethereum (ETH), and for euros, Turkish lira and Japanese yen where those markets are offered. Binance removed the XLM/BTC and XLM/FDUSD pairs on May 22, 2026, and its XLM pairs with BNB, PAX, TUSD and BUSD are also closed.
Here’s how to start investing in Stellar Lumens:
Step 1: Register on Binance
If you haven’t already, you will need to register an account on Binance. Their interface is very user-friendly, and the process should not take long.
Step 2: Verify your account
Binance requires you to submit several KYC (know your customer) verification documents before you can start trading. Also, you will need to set up secure 2-Factor Authentication to protect your account.
Step 3: Send USDT or ETH to your Binance account
Once your account is active, you will have to deposit USDT or Ethereum to your Binance wallet. If you deposit Bitcoin instead, swap it for XLM with Binance Convert (“Trade”, then “Convert & Block Trade”), because there is no longer an XLM/BTC pair.
If you don’t already own one of these coins, you can buy XLM itself with a credit or debit card on Binance, or buy crypto with a card on Coinmama or Changelly, or a fiat-supported exchange like Coinbase.
Once you have USDT or ETH and are ready to send it to Binance, log in, click “Deposit”, then “Deposit Crypto”.
Select the coin you want to deposit and the network you will send it on. This will give you an address to send your coins to. Make sure you only send the selected currency, on the selected network, to that address (i.e. only send ETH on the Ethereum network to the ETH address). If you send any other coin or use another network, it could be lost.
Step 4: Wait for confirmation
Depending on the network load, it may take a few moments for the transaction to go through.
Binance is also allowing users to purchase digital assets using a credit card, however, there may be some digital assets not available for purchase with this method.
Step 5: Find and select the XLM/USDT or XLM/ETH pair
Once you’ve deposited USDT or Ethereum to your Binance wallet, you’ll need to move to the exchange section of Binance. Do this by selecting “Trade” on the top bar, then “Spot”.
Now you are in the exchange area, type XLM in the search bar and choose the pair for the coin you deposited earlier (XLM/USDT or XLM/ETH). Click on the pairing to bring up the XLM trading screen.
Optional: Use Binance’s advanced tools to buy at the right time
Binance offers a number of tools and data charts to help you track coins’ performance over time. Using this information, you can try to buy low and sell high.
The trading screen will show you price and order history for every pair. It also gives you the option to set limits for buying or selling. This means you can set a price at which Binance will automatically make a trade for you.
Step 6: Choose the amount of XLM you want to buy
Underneath the price chart, you can set the price you wish to buy at, or select “Market”. Buying at the market price will execute your transaction at whatever value XLM is at that moment.
For both types of order, you can choose how much XLM to buy, or to spend 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of the coins in your USDT or ETH wallet. Binance charges regular users a 0.1% spot trading fee, or 0.075% if you pay the fee with BNB.
Step 7: Buy Stellar Lumens!
Click the “Buy XLM” button, and you’re done!
Step 8: Move your coins to a secure Stellar wallet
The best thing to do is to move the funds to a cryptocurrency wallet specifically designed to store digital assets. This is very important because it would allow users to safely store their funds and use them when they are needed. Some of the most useful and secure wallets include hardware devices such as Ledger Nano S.
You will need a wallet that supports Stellar Lumens. An official list of wallets supporting XLM can be found here. Popular options include Freighter, the Stellar Development Foundation’s wallet for browsers and phones, LOBSTR, a wallet for Stellar and the XRP Ledger, or a Ledger hardware wallet such as the Nano S Plus, one of the most secure types of wallet available. A new Stellar account must hold at least 1 XLM, the network’s minimum balance, so withdraw more than that.
Once you have your Stellar Lumens wallet set up and ready, go to “Assets”, then “Overview”, and click “Withdraw”. From here, select XLM. Now add your XLM wallet address, and choose how much to withdraw.
Click “Withdraw”, confirm the details and complete the security check, then wait for the transaction to be confirmed. Your coins should show up in your wallet shortly, depending on the amount of activity on the network.
Conclusion
Purchasing XLM using Binance is one of the best decisions that investors can make rather than using iliquid exchanges with low-security measures. Moreover, in case there are problems with the funds, Binance has a contingency fund that was already used once when the exchange was affected by an attack.
After all the process purchasing the funds, sending the XLM to a hardware or offline wallet would be the best decision to store the digital asset.
At the time of writing this article, XLM has a market capitalization of $1.44 billion and a price per coin of $0.073227.
Now you’re ready to start investing in Stellar Lumens, the currency behind the global financial network of the future.
Andrew is a writer and digital marketer from New Zealand, now based out of South East Asia. Along with his work in many areas of the e-commerce space, Andrew has a keen interest in cryptocurrency, especially altcoins and projects focused on mainstream crypto adoption
