Stellar completed a mainnet vote to launch Protocol 23, introducing eight Core Advancement Protocols that enable parallel smart contract execution, faster transaction processing, and improved scalability. The upgrade comes as Stellar's DeFi ecosystem surges with institutional adoption, including Franklin Templeton's BENJI fund and Circle's USDC.
Stellar held its mainnet vote to activate Protocol 23, a major network upgrade featuring eight Core Advancement Protocols (CAPs) designed to improve speed, cost, and scalability. The upgrade introduces parallel smart contract execution, allowing transactions to be processed simultaneously rather than sequentially, similar to recent innovations on Sei and Monad. Whisk's CAP-0063 enables validators to predictably distribute parallel versus sequential transactions. The timing is significant as Stellar's DeFi ecosystem has grown dramatically, with TVL surging over 20x since early 2024 and nearly 3x in 2025, driven by Soroban smart contracts and real-world asset adoption. Stellar now ranks fifth in DeFi by RWA value, hosting Franklin Templeton's BENJI money market fund ($497 million), Circle's USDC, and WisdomTree's money market fund.
