Stellar Ecosystem
News

Bank von der Heydt, a 270-year-old Munich bank, partnered with Bitbond to tokenize securities on Stellar and issue a euro stablecoin for institutional private placements, launching a production version in April.

The Stellar Winter Roundup 2019 recaps key achievements and events from December through October, including ecosystem expansion, the Meridian conference, lumen distribution updates, and new partnerships. Highlights feature SDF's new mandate, Horizon and Core releases, Stellar Community Fund voting, and integrations like Travala.com and BitGo support for XLM. It also announces new hires and job opportunities at SDF.

Stellar Development Foundation reflects on 2019 achievements: team grew from 11 to 56 employees, Stellar accounts doubled to 4.1M, protocol upgrades improved capacity and fairness, and ecosystem matured with stronger validator infrastructure and real use cases like AnchorUSD.

Keybase ended its Stellar Lumens airdrop after just 90 days due to spam attacks. The messaging platform received 2 billion XLM tokens to distribute over 20 months, but spam bots forced early termination with only 300 million XLM distributed instead.

The Stellar Development Foundation announced a major strategic pivot at Meridian 2019, burning 55.5 billion lumens and reducing its total allocation from 105 billion to 50 billion. SDF is shifting from broad giveaway programs to focused investments in direct development, ecosystem infrastructure, use-case development, and targeted user acquisition.

Gauntlet announced partnerships with Stellar, Celo, and Compound to provide consulting and stress-testing services. The firm will help Stellar prevent network disruptions, assist Compound with market risk modeling, and support Celo's stablecoin stability mechanisms.

The Stellar Monthly Roundup for September 2019 covers ecosystem updates including collaborations, AMAs, new hires at SDF, developer releases, community fund proposals, and ecosystem projects like Cowrie Systems and Bitbond. Highlights include the upcoming Meridian conference in Mexico City and a proposal to disable inflation. New features on stellarbeat.io and protocol upgrades prepare the network for future improvements.

Coinbase expanded XLM and LINK trading to New York residents after regulatory approval. Both tokens were previously unavailable in the state due to strict financial regulations, but are now accessible alongside other US jurisdictions.

Binance.US announced it will support Stellar alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and other cryptocurrencies at launch, with five additional assets including Stellar becoming available for deposits shortly after.

Mike Kennedy, creator of Zelle, became CEO of Interstellar, a Stellar-based blockchain payment platform competing with Ripple and Swift. Interstellar is crypto-agnostic and aims to enable faster, cheaper cross-border payments for banks without correspondent banking networks.

Stellar Development Foundation and Keybase announced a 2 billion XLM airdrop worth roughly $120 million, distributing 100 million XLM monthly to Keybase's 300,000 active users over 20 months. The partnership aims to introduce cryptocurrency to non-crypto-native users through an existing messaging platform.

Stellar, Ethereum, Tezos, Oasis, and NEAR foundations partnered with IDEO CoLab and CoinList on a hackathon running Aug 5-Sept 22 focused on building user-friendly blockchain applications. Teams compete to simplify crypto UX and drive mainstream adoption, with prizes up to $10,000.

The Stellar Development Foundation announced Stellar Meridian, its first sponsored conference, taking place November 4-5, 2019 in Mexico City. The event will bring together developers, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem projects to discuss financial inclusion, regulation, and Stellar's role in the future of finance.

IBM's global blockchain head Jesse Lund has departed the company. Lund led IBM's Stellar-based World Wire payment network, which connected six banks across 72 countries. Stellar co-founder Jed McCaleb said the departure won't impact the platform.

Wirex, a UK FCA-regulated fintech, launched 26 fiat-backed stablecoins on Stellar for its 2M+ users. The stablecoins enable low-cost international remittance, can be spent via Wirex Visa card, and are pegged to major currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, HKD, and SGD.

Stellar launched as Coinbase Earn's largest partner, committing 1 billion XLM to reward users for educational videos about the platform. Users can earn up to $50 in XLM by completing lessons and referring friends.

Currency Matters joined IBM Blockchain World Wire, a real-time payments network built on Stellar protocol, enabling cross-border transactions across 50+ countries with access to stablecoins and XLM.

IBM launched World Wire, a real-time global payments system built on Stellar that connects regulated financial institutions and replaces legacy correspondent banking. Supporting 47 currencies across 72 countries, it represents a major enterprise adoption milestone for the Stellar network.

IBM launched World Wire, a payment network built on Stellar blockchain, with six international banks signing letters of intent to issue stablecoins. The platform enables faster, cheaper cross-border payments and remittances, with operations in 72 countries and support for 48 currencies.

Denelle Dixon, former Mozilla COO, has joined the Stellar Development Foundation as CEO, succeeding creator Jed McCaleb who moves to chief architect. Dixon brings experience in privacy advocacy, open internet policy, and operations leadership to guide Stellar's growth and partnerships.

Coinbase Pro added support for Stellar (XLM), enabling deposits and trading. The listing follows Stellar's recent logo redesign and could lead to XLM being added to the main Coinbase exchange, historically boosting cryptocurrency prices.

Coinbase Pro announced it is listing Stellar Lumens (XLM), accepting deposits immediately with trading to follow once liquidity is established. XLM is not yet available on Coinbase's retail platforms. The listing comes after Coinbase identified XLM as a candidate asset last December.