Payments
Coinbase to list Stellar Lumens (XLM)Coinbase Pro announced it will accept XLM deposits and enable trading for Stellar's native asset, with deposits opening for at least 12 hours before trading begins to establish liquidity.
DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
Coinbase Pro announced it will accept XLM deposits and enable trading for Stellar's native asset, with deposits opening for at least 12 hours before trading begins to establish liquidity.
Stellar announced a redesigned logo replacing its cartoon rocketship with a sleek, professional symbol resembling a currency mark. The new design, created by Stockholm-based agency Kurppa Hosk, aims to position Stellar as a mature cryptocurrency suitable for institutional and business use.
SatoshiPay received a $1 million grant from the Stellar Development Foundation to expand micropayments adoption beyond publishing into gaming, tipping, and other industries through a marketing program offering up to $100,000 grants to companies implementing paywalls.
HBUS listed Stellar Lumens (XLM) alongside Monero and Steem on its U.S. digital asset marketplace Huobi.com, bringing total tradeable assets to 15. The exchange plans to release an asset framework for transparency in its listing process.
Coinsquare acquired StellarX, a Stellar-native decentralized exchange, and will rebrand its previously acquired BlockEQ wallet as StellarX's anchor wallet. StellarX will operate as a Bermuda-based subsidiary while continuing development under its own brand.
SatoshiPay, a Stellar-based micropayments startup, partnered with Axel Springer SE to enable blockchain payments for content from major publishers like Business Insider and Rolling Stone, with wallet integration launching January 31.
SatoshiPay partnered with Axel Springer, Europe's largest digital publisher, to enable micropayments for news content using Stellar Lumens. The integration is expected to launch in spring 2019 across Axel Springer's brands including Business Insider and Bild.
Jed McCaleb, creator of Stellar, discusses the project's 2018 emergence as a mature blockchain platform after years of obscurity, highlighting partnerships with IBM and Blockchain.com, the Chain acquisition, and his vision for Stellar as a payments protocol connecting financial institutions.
The Stellar Development Foundation announced three major community initiatives: Stellar Clusters for local grassroots meetups, a first global Stellar conference, and the Stellar Community Fund to let the community guide lumen distribution. The post also highlighted Reddit governance experiments and a Community Champions program.
Blockchain wallet provider is distributing $125 million in Stellar lumens (XLM) to wallet holders, marking Stellar's first major airdrop partnership and an effort to onboard millions of new users to crypto.
Singapore-based TransferTo is partnering with Stellar to enable low-cost blockchain-based cross-border remittances for underbanked populations in emerging markets, with plans to send regular payments across the Stellar network by Q4 2018 using Lumens as the settlement currency.
Stellar and Ripple, both born from the same 2014 fork, are competing to replace SWIFT in cross-border payments. Ripple secured Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank while Stellar partnered with IBM on Blockchain World Wire, but both face a bear market downturn.
TokenSoft, a compliance platform for crypto startups, is now officially supporting token launches on the Stellar protocol. The company previously focused on Ethereum-based projects but cited Stellar's maturity and growing demand from entrepreneurs as reasons for expanding support.
Lightyear, formed by the Stellar Foundation, acquired San Francisco-based blockchain fintech Chain. The deal, rumored at $500m, will move Chain's operations to the Stellar network as part of Lightyear's rebranding to InterStellar.
IBM has launched Blockchain World Wire, a cross-border payment solution built on Stellar that reduces costs and speeds up international transactions by converting currencies to digital assets through the World Wire API.
IBM Blockchain World Wire, built on Stellar's protocol, launched as a near-real-time cross-border payments system. The platform uses digital assets to bridge fiat currencies and promises faster settlement with reduced transaction costs for financial institutions.
Celsius Network, a crypto lending platform, partnered with Lightyear.io to offer borrowing and lending services for Stellar-based projects and ICOs. Celsius will add Stellar Lumens support to its wallet and enable interest-earning on Stellar tokens.
IBM and Stronghold launched Stronghold USD, a dollar-backed stablecoin on Stellar, enabling businesses and asset managers to conduct faster, cheaper cross-border payments and foreign exchange settlements.
Kik launched a crypto-economy allowing users to earn and spend Kin tokens through the Kin Marketplace Beta. Users can earn Kin by completing quizzes, tutorials, and polls, then spend it on premium app themes. Kin operates on its own blockchain forked from Stellar, enabling zero-fee transactions.
Stellar is reportedly in talks to acquire Chain.com, an enterprise blockchain company founded in 2014 that has raised $40m and worked on token infrastructure for major financial institutions.
IBM is expanding cryptocurrency adoption beyond Stellar, meeting with 20 central banks to explore blockchain-based digital currencies and tokenizing assets like securities, commodities, and utilities across enterprises.
Kik announced its kin token will operate on both Ethereum and Stellar blockchains simultaneously using atomic swaps. Stellar will handle transactions with faster confirmation times and lower fees, while Ethereum maintains liquidity, allowing the messaging app to scale its cryptocurrency payments system.
Stellar Development Foundation released a formal specification for adopting Lightning Network technology to improve transaction scalability. The roadmap targets testnet launch by April 1 and production implementation by autumn, addressing demands from partners like Kik and IBM.
Stellar Development Foundation invested in Keybase, a cryptography startup co-founded by OKCupid creators, to build person-to-person cryptocurrency payments using Stellar's lumens blockchain with near-zero fees.
Stellar's 2017 year-in-review highlights 128 merged pull requests, smart contract functionality, IBM partnership with 12 currency corridors, and growing ICO adoption including Mobius and Smartlands. The foundation emphasizes that Stellar's proven performance metrics (1000 ops/sec, 4.96s settlement) position it as a leading global payment protocol.