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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.

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.

Nelson, Risein Stellar Philippines' country lead, discusses blockchain's competitive edge in emerging markets. The key message: sustainable builders succeed through entrepreneurial thinking and 3-5 year roadmaps, not grant-chasing. Real opportunity lies in DeFi, where transparent, algorithm-driven systems outperform traditional banking.

Alejandro from Bolivia discusses building Polar, infrastructure for onboarding developers to Stellar. He shares his journey from economic crisis to blockchain adoption, and his philosophy of building for people in emerging markets.

Abraham Cobos discusses Bando's treasury management platform for Mexican companies, which abstracts blockchain complexity to enable investment in tokenized CETES. He outlines competitive modes, the acceleration of AI-driven development, and strategic decisions to maximize focus across Bando and partner initiatives.

The Marshall Islands launches USDM1, a sovereign bond on Stellar backed by US treasuries, solving correspondent banking gaps and enabling universal basic income distribution across its dispersed island population.

Three fintech founders—Tiago from Revool, João from Picnic, and Rob from Pods—discuss how neobanks are scaling by hiding rather than promoting blockchain infrastructure. The winning formula: crypto under the hood. Dollar App succeeds where other platforms fail because it never mentions blockchain to users, making stablecoins as simple as traditional payments.

Stellar Philippines is establishing a builder-focused developer ecosystem in the island nation through university bootcamps, hackathons like the ongoing IPAC event, and developer bounties. Led by country lead Nelson Lumbres and tech lead Armelin Obingar, the initiative draws from their prior success building ICP Philippines into a community of thousands of developers. Rather than chasing speculative investment, they emphasize building technology infrastructure during market downturns—positioning Philippine developers for first-mover advantage.

Mimi Vong on the path from Wall Street hierarchy to Web3 collaboration. The Metafyed CEO shares how she let go of prestige, found purpose in RWA tokenization, and learned to build for impact, not to prove people wrong.

Two Stellar ecosystem projects, ArcusX and SoZu Pay, were awarded the InstaWords Award for a four-week sprint. ArcusX is building a freelance marketplace on Stellar to reduce fees and payment delays in Latin America, while SoZu Pay is developing NGO disbursement infrastructure using stablecoins and the Stellar Disbursement Platform.

Meru CEO Amilcar Kaderazo and Stellar Development Foundation's Ada Bogan discuss how neobanks powered by stablecoins are transforming financial access in Latin America, with Meru offering cross-border payments, savings, and DeFi integration for freelancers and emerging markets.

Stellar Developers meeting covering Q1 2026 ecosystem metrics showing 2B RWA market cap and 170M DeFi TVL, MoneyGram partnership expansion to El Salvador, Aquarius hitting 50M TVL, and 260 hackathon projects including AI agents, mobile wallets, and security tools.

Stellar House CDMX brought together builders, regulators, and institutions across Latin America to discuss stablecoins, financial infrastructure, and blockchain adoption. Key themes included cross-border payments, regulatory clarity, privacy as institutional adoption driver, and local stablecoin opportunities.

Marshall Islands government launched USDM1, a Treasury-backed token on Stellar, to distribute universal basic income on-chain. The initiative replaces physical cash transfers to remote populations across the scattered island nation, reaching 40+ merchants and enabling peer-to-peer transfers. IMF, SDF, and government officials discuss implementation and policy implications.

Stellar Development Foundation and Blockchain Acceleration Foundation showcase Impacta Bootcamp, Código Alebrije hackathon, and acceleration program results in LATAM, featuring 16 projects building on Stellar with mentorship and grants.

Meru and DeFindex discuss how to generate yield on stablecoins through DeFi protocols. Meru integrates DeFindex infrastructure to offer users self-custodied returns ranging from 8-23%, with no intermediaries, no withdrawal limits, and instant interest compounding.

Documentary exploring how stablecoins facilitate cross-border trade in Nigeria's informal electronics market, where merchants bypass traditional banking to access dollars for imports from China.

Stanford researcher Lisa Nestor analyzed 41 million USDC transactions on Airtm to measure stablecoin performance in cross-border payments. The data shows 96% settlement within one hour, competitive fees for micropayments, and strong evidence that open networks deliver better outcomes than closed systems.

A discussion on how blockchain technology and tokenization can preserve and verify the provenance of cultural artifacts and artworks, using examples from Colombian museums and art collections.

Elliott Voris from the Stellar Development Foundation presents the regional starter pack, a toolkit for developers building on Stellar in Mexico. The pack includes resources for discovering anchors like Etherfuse, working demo code, and a TypeScript library that abstracts anchor APIs to simplify on and off-ramp integration.

Elliott Voris from the Stellar Development Foundation presents the regional starter pack, a toolkit for developers building on Stellar in Mexico. The pack includes anchor integration resources, a working demo, and TypeScript libraries that simplify on/off-ramp functionality with partners like Etherfuse, BlindPay, and AlphaPay.

A documentary-style introduction to Medellín's emerging web3 and blockchain innovation ecosystem, exploring how the city is becoming a hub for builders experimenting with decentralized finance and digital asset ownership.

Impacta Bootcamp demo day showcased 50+ Stellar-built projects from a 5-week program in Latin America, featuring fintech, tokenization, and real-world asset solutions addressing regional economic challenges.