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Kaan hosts Yaman and Dennis from Trion Labs to introduce ZARF: a zero-knowledge protocol that lets users receive tokens via email addresses and claim them with Google login, keeping wallet identity private. The project exemplifies new use cases enabled by Stellar's X-Ray protocol upgrade.

OpenZeppelin released confidential tokens as a developer preview on Stellar testnet. The feature enables private transfer amounts and balances while keeping counterparty addresses visible. Designed for private payroll, grants, treasury management, and B2B settlement. Mainnet launch expected late summer after security audit.

SDF senior technical writer Brie Wilde demonstrates Quarterly Ascension, an on-chain game where ten autonomous AI middle managers compete for a single VP promotion. Agents transact via Soroban smart contracts and MPP. Players direct their agents through 'life coaching' or let them act autonomously. The game showcases what developers can build with advanced Stellar infrastructure.

Denelle Dixon discusses why Stellar has become the institutional blockchain of choice. DTCC selected Stellar as the first public blockchain for tokenizing securities and ETFs; MoneyGram launched MGUSD stablecoin. Institutional features built at the protocol layer (clawback, freezing, KYC controls) make Stellar uniquely trusted for regulated assets.

Dave Taylor, CEO of Etherfuse, argues that stablecoins alone are insufficient for efficient DeFi in non-Western economies. His solution: yield-bearing stablecoins backed by sovereign debt (Mexican CETES, Brazilian SELIC), providing competitive stores of value and enabling balanced AMM liquidity across local and foreign assets.

Blend, Stellar's largest DeFi protocol, faces competing V3 proposals: Templar wants institutional RWAs and fixed-rate lending with permission pools; the alternative keeps Blend primitive, letting builders layer features on top. No governance DAO; the backstop LP market migration decides which version wins.

Etherfuse founder Dave Taylor on why emerging markets need yield-bearing stablecoins denominated in local currencies. Tokenizing treasury bonds like Mexican CETES and Brazilian SELIC securities creates inherent yield without USD exposure or DeFi risk.

MoneyGram CEO Anthony Soohoo explains the strategic reasoning behind MGUSD, the company's native dollar-backed stablecoin on Stellar. Rather than treating stablecoins as trading assets, MoneyGram designed MGUSD as a platform for smart contract-based payments.

Stellar's RWA market cap exceeded $3 billion. This week's developer meeting features Gaian, a Southeast Asia payment infrastructure startup that uses USDC on Stellar to connect crypto wallets directly to local banking rails, enabling merchant payments and cross-border transfers that settle into real bank accounts. Gaian demonstrated their V2 API and self-serve onboarding dashboard.

Milan, 20, is building orbitkit.fun, a CLI tool that lets developers scaffold entire Stellar apps with one command. Winner of Best AI Dev Tool at Stellar Build residency, the tool addresses a core friction point: new builders arriving at Stellar face doc-heavy onboarding. Currently at 7,200 users, Milan is also running a web agency doing $12k MRR while studying engineering and working full-time.

Three builders discuss how Stellar Light, Stellar Passport, and Lumen Loop work together to solve the ecosystem's core visibility problem: new developers struggle to find projects and prove their contributions. The three tools form a complementary stack addressing onboarding, participation tracking, and signal aggregation.

Stellar's weekly developer meeting features JavaScript SDK v16 release, a real-world ZK hackathon ($10K prize pool, 11 days remaining), and the CV Labs + SDF EMEA accelerator ($150K grants). Guest project XCCY demonstrates its interest rate swaps integration on Soroban.