DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
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.
Kik announced plans to migrate its Kin token from Ethereum to Stellar, citing Ethereum's scaling limitations and high transaction fees. CEO Ted Livingston stated Stellar's design is better suited for Kin's needs, with testing beginning by end of December and a potential Q2 rollout.
IBM and Stellar announced a partnership settling real cross-border payments using lumens as a bridge currency across Pacific currencies. The platform integrates private and public blockchain, with IBM handling transaction clearing while Stellar's blockchain conducts settlement.
Stellar, IBM, and KlickEx announced a blockchain-based cross-border payments solution now processing live transactions across 12 currency corridors in the Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand, and UK, dramatically reducing costs and settlement times.
Stellar Development Foundation launched a Partnership Grant Program offering up to $2M USD per grant in XLM to incentivize development of high-impact projects, with primary focus on anchors and exchanges to promote financial inclusion.
Stellar co-founder Jed McCaleb launched Lightyear.io, a for-profit company to help financial institutions integrate Stellar's open-source payments network. The move acknowledges that traditional banks are essential to building a global financial system.
Tempo Money Transfer integrated with Stellar blockchain to enable remittances from Europe to the Philippines via Coins.ph, allowing customers to send funds using just a recipient's name and phone number with 3-second settlement times.
Stellar announced partnerships with ICICI Bank, Tempo Money Transfer, Flutterwave, and Coins.ph to build cross-border payment solutions using its blockchain infrastructure, targeting remittances and international money transfers with reduced fees.
Stellar cofounder Jed McCaleb discusses how banks are exploring blockchain partnerships to stay competitive, noting that understanding the technology and managing compliance remain the biggest hurdles for financial institutions adopting distributed ledger solutions.
Deloitte integrated with Stellar to launch a Digital Bank application enabling instant cross-border payments for consumers and businesses, with transactions resolving in around 5 seconds and plans for multiple financial institution partnerships by 2017.
Stellar co-founder Jed McCaleb is taking on a more public role after his co-founder's resignation, focusing on enterprise adoption. Barclays and Deloitte are building payment prototypes on Stellar's network to serve underbanked populations in Africa, with Nigeria as the initial target market.
Stellar.org announced a lumen giveaway program for Bitcoin holders, reserving 19 billion lumens (19% of initial supply). Starting July 5, 2016, Bitcoin holders can claim lumens proportional to their BTC holdings through a claim page or participating exchanges.
A New York Observer investigation details alleged interpersonal conflicts between Ripple Labs and Stellar founders Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim, claiming the feud disrupted crypto adoption efforts at Wells Fargo and derailed a Stripe acquisition deal.
