The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced a major restructuring at the Meridian event in Mexico City, burning 55 billion XLM to reduce total supply to 50 billion. They ended large giveaway programs and redirected remaining lumens to core development, ecosystem support, use-case investments, and targeted user acquisition. This new mandate focuses SDF on making Stellar the global payments standard through efficient, transparent spending.
At the first in-person Stellar Meridian gathering in Mexico City, SDF revealed its next steps, including burning 5 billion from its operating fund (now 12B XLM) and 50 billion from giveaway programs, leaving exactly 50 billion XLM total with under 30 billion under SDF stewardship. Giveaway and partner airdrop programs are terminated due to diminishing returns, with funds now escrowed for specific initiatives over the next decade. Key allocations include 12B for direct development and advocacy (doubling staff), 2B for ecosystem support like infrastructure grants and currency anchors, 10B for use-case investments via new products and a Stellar Enterprise Fund, and 6B for marketing and in-app user distributions. SDF committed to transparency by publishing account addresses, emphasizing efficiency to drive network adoption as a payments standard.
