Stacks in November 2026: A smart contract layer for Bitcoin after an autumn of large swings
Stacks (STX) is the token of the Stacks network, which sees itself as a second layer on Bitcoin: programs run on Stacks, and their results are anchored to Bitcoin blocks. On 10 November 2026 STX trades at around $0.315 and, with a market capitalisation of around $593 million, ranks 79th among the largest crypto assets. To put Stacks in context, compare it with other projects that aim to make Bitcoin programmable, such as BOB and Bitlayer.
What has changed in recent weeks
Between the daily low of $0.1177 on 18 August and the daily high of $0.4588 on 12 October, the price almost quadrupled. Since then STX has given back around 31%. Over 30 days it is down around 21.1%, over seven days around 2.3%, while over 90 days it is up around 148.5%. October opened at $0.3710 and closed at $0.3245.
Why this forecast is cautious
Since the closing price of the year's first trading day of $0.2632, STX has gained around 20%. It is still around 92% below its highest daily price of around $3.84 on 1 April 2024. This year's swings show how quickly the price moves in both directions. Under our methodology our scenarios start from the price at the beginning of the year, which is why the 2026 average sits practically at today's price.
The crypto market right now
Total value and sentiment of the market from our own charts. While the page is open, the values refresh at the pace of their source.
What Stacks is and what STX is used for
In its documentation Stacks describes itself as a fast, low-cost layer 2 network on Bitcoin that inherits the security of Bitcoin. Programs for Stacks are written in a dedicated language called Clarity, not in the language used by Ethereum. According to a Blockworks report, the 2024 Nakamoto upgrade bound Stacks blocks more tightly to the finality of Bitcoin blocks.
STX is the network's token. It pays for fees, and it is part of the Proof of Transfer consensus: anyone who locks STX for a set period, known as Stacking, receives rewards in Bitcoin. According to Stacks Labs, version PoX-5 has applied since 30 July 2026. It introduces Bitcoin Bonds, which pair BTC on Bitcoin with STX on Stacks, and removes the cooldown between two Stacking cycles. No new token was created, and balances and addresses stayed unchanged.
sBTC and the supply side
Since December 2024 Stacks has offered sBTC, a token that according to the documentation is pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin and can be converted back into BTC. The deposited bitcoin is managed by a group of initially 15 signers chosen by the community. sBTC is the route by which bitcoin reaches applications on Stacks, and therefore an important yardstick for whether the network is being used.
New STX are created as a reward for each block. Under proposal SIP-029, approved in December 2024, the reward stayed at 1,000 STX per block until April 2026 and was then set to fall in step with Bitcoin's halvings. Changes to this plan are still being discussed in the community. CoinMarketCap counts around 1.88 billion STX as circulating and lists no maximum supply.
Where STX trades
We measured the distribution of daily volume ourselves, across spot market trading pairs. We recorded 94 spot pairs with a combined volume of around $49.7 million over 24 hours. Around $33.6 million of that falls on a single venue, COINSPACE, which we do not treat as an established centralised exchange and therefore leave out. The remaining around $16.1 million is the reliable part. Four centralised exchanges each carry more than $1 million: Upbit with around $2.82 million, Bullish with around $2.02 million, Binance with around $1.36 million and Bybit with around $1.05 million. According to CoinMarketCap, practically no volume is on decentralised exchanges.
