DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
U.S. Bancorp is testing its own stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain, joining other major banks like Bank of America and Citi in exploring USD-backed digital assets. The bank chose Stellar for its security features, including the ability to freeze assets and clawback transactions. This aligns with U.S. Bank's new digital assets division focused on stablecoins, custody, and tokenization.
A crypto market analysis from November 5, 2025, discusses recent Bitcoin and altcoin selloffs amid bearish sentiment, while weighing reasons for optimism like maturing cycles and potential Q1 recovery against risks of breaking $100k support. The author remains cautiously bullish expecting volatility before expansion. Ads and links highlight Stellar blockchain tools like the Stellar Data Tool and Soroban Playground.
This article analyzes McKinsey's 2025 Global Payments Report, highlighting stablecoins like USDC and PYUSD on the Stellar network as key to future payment rails amid margin compression, rail fragmentation, and AI-driven edge intelligence. It outlines practical applications for remittances, merchant settlements, B2B treasury, and agentic commerce. Stellar's low fees, Soroban smart contracts, and MoneyGram integrations position it as a pragmatic, programmable settlement layer.
Stellar hosts over $533 million in real-world assets excluding stablecoins, up 25% year-over-year, with Franklin Templeton's BENJI money market fund leading at $496 million. The network now provides access to $3 billion in total RWAs including tokenized treasuries, equities, bonds, and real estate from issuers like Ondo, Mercado Bitcoin, and Centrifuge.
Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon published an essay warning that the blockchain industry risks repeating historical monopolies if private companies continue building closed, vertically integrated networks. She argues for open, permissionless infrastructure like Stellar over proprietary blockchains controlled by financial institutions.
21X, Europe's first fully regulated DLT trading and settlement system, has launched on the Stellar network as its second blockchain, enabling institutional trading of tokenized securities on a regulated secondary market in the EU.
Blockchain benefits both financial institutions seeking efficiency and the 1.4 billion unbanked needing accessibility, as emphasized by Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon. Institutional adoption by firms like Franklin Templeton and BlackRock validates infrastructure that also enables fast, low-cost remittances and humanitarian aid. Success requires intentional design serving both ends of the financial spectrum.
The article discusses the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile, launched in March 2025, holding Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and Cardano from seized assets. It explores global crypto reserve trends and benefits like inflation hedging. A Stellar-based protocol, Normal, enables trading index funds tracking these assets and more.
The Stellar Development Foundation has made a strategic investment in Archax, a UK-regulated digital asset exchange, to support the tokenization of real-world assets on the Stellar network. Archax has completed key milestones including tokenizing an Aberdeen Money Market Fund and integrating Stellar into its platform, positioning itself to bring institutional assets onchain.
José Fernández da Ponte joins the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) as President and Chief Growth Officer, bringing expertise from PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin launch and fintech scaling. In an interview with Denelle Dixon, he emphasizes utility, trust, regulatory alignment, and community-driven growth to expand Stellar's adoption. His focus includes partnerships, distribution, and building non-excludable financial infrastructure for global inclusion.
Valour launched four new SEK-denominated ETPs on Sweden's Spotlight Stock Market for Mantra (OM), Tron (TRX), Stellar (XLM), and Tether Gold (XAUt), expanding its Nordic presence and moving toward its goal of 100 ETPs by end of 2025.
In 2025, Real World Assets (RWAs) tokenization has surpassed $50 billion, driven by major players like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton on blockchains including Stellar. The article explores reasons for its growth, liquidity benefits, regulatory challenges, and potential for governance and social impact. Projections indicate tokenized assets could reach $30–50 trillion by 2030.
The article highlights the inefficiencies of traditional income verification processes, including delays, privacy invasions, and vulnerability to AI-generated fraud. It discusses how these issues lead to applicant drop-offs and business losses. Reclaim (or BlueCheck) offers an instant, document-free solution using trusted sources like IRS and payroll systems for secure verification.
Nonco, an institutional crypto trading firm, completed an industry-first derivatives transaction using Franklin Templeton's BENJI token on the Stellar network as collateral. The transaction demonstrated how tokenized assets on Stellar enable faster, more efficient collateral management for OTC derivatives with real-time settlement and transparency.
ficc.ai has received a grant from the Stellar Development Foundation to develop a blockchain-based pricing oracle for municipal bonds and U.S. Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities on the Stellar network. The initiative aims to enhance transparency and accessibility in fixed-income markets by distributing AI-driven pricing data onchain.
Societe Generale FORGE plans to launch its MiCAR-compliant EURCV stablecoin on Stellar, joining Ethereum, Solana, and XRP Ledger. The move bridges traditional finance with digital assets through Stellar's established TradFi connections.
Franklin Templeton has launched the first fully tokenized U.S. Treasury fund registered in Luxembourg, available on the Stellar network for European institutional investors. The fund, Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund, mirrors its U.S. version which has attracted over $580 million since 2021. It aims to provide enhanced efficiency, transparency, and security through blockchain technology.
Messari released a comprehensive PayFi Ecosystem Analysis report highlighting how blockchain technology on Stellar is enabling payment financing applications through instant liquidity and reduced costs. The report covers PayFi infrastructure, stablecoin adoption, and emerging use cases.
Denelle Dixon argues banks must choose between proprietary and open blockchain infrastructure for tokenized assets, as this decision creates lasting path dependencies. Open networks offer interoperability, reduced concentration risk, better auditability, and faster adaptation compared to vendor-controlled systems.
Huma Finance published a detailed breakdown of the PayFi Stack, a six-layer framework for blockchain-based payment financing inspired by the OSI model. The framework addresses limitations in traditional finance by enabling real-time, programmable, borderless payments through structured layers covering transactions, currencies, custody, compliance, financing, and applications.
Stellar launches Build Better, a community-driven initiative that collects ideas from the ecosystem across three focus areas (finance, creativity, access) and translates them into hackathon tracks. The program offers a $30K prize pool and aims to bridge Web3 vision with real-world implementation using Stellar's smart contract platform.
The Stellar Development Foundation published a contribution to OMFIF's Digital Assets 2024 Report titled 'The Power of Public Blockchains,' highlighting how public blockchains offer superior stability, security, and resilience compared to traditional financial infrastructure while enabling regulatory compliance and faster settlement.
Huma, a Payment Financing (PayFi) network, raised $38 million led by Distributed Global with backing from the Stellar Development Foundation, Hashkey Capital, and others. The SDF invested $10 million in Arf's RWA assets, and Huma plans to expand to Stellar and Solana.
Huma Finance closed a $38 million investment round ($10M equity, $28M in tokenized RWAs) led by Distributed Global with participation from Hashkey Capital, Folius Ventures, Stellar Development Foundation, and TIBAS Ventures. The funding will support expansion to Solana and Stellar's Soroban network.
This article explains token vesting and streaming protocols, highlighting their importance for crypto projects to align incentives and prevent dumps. It details closed-ended and open-ended streaming models, with examples like Sablier, Superfluid, Hedgey, and LlamaPay. TokenOps is presented as a platform integrating these for efficient vesting management.
ATHR introduces a novel ranking system for crypto assets based on all-time high rankings (ATHR), last year high rank, and last 3-month high rank, using historical data from CoinMarketCap. The approach analyzes ranking movements rather than absolute prices to account for interdependencies among assets. Stellar (XLM) appears at rank 39 with ATHR of 4, current rank around 31.
Franklin Templeton enabled peer-to-peer transfers for its BENJI tokenized money market fund on Stellar and Polygon, allowing direct investor-to-investor token transfers without intermediaries. The $380 million fund now supports secondary market trading and DeFi collateral use cases.
Cables Finance has launched on the Stellar network as a semi-decentralized FX trading platform featuring a central limit order book, slippage-free trading, and OTC capabilities. The launch represents a collaboration between Cables Finance and the Stellar Development Foundation to democratize access to cross-border payments and FX trading globally.
This article explores the history and advantages of asset tokenization on the Stellar network, highlighting how institutions like Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, and the Bank for International Settlements leverage Stellar's native asset control features for issuing securities, money market funds, and bonds with operational efficiency, transparency, and sustainability benefits.