DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
The Republic of the Marshall Islands is launching blockchain-based wallets via the Lomalo app to deliver its nationwide ENRA Universal Basic Income program. Funds are disbursed as USDM1, a USD-pegged digital sovereign bond issued on the Stellar network and backed by U.S. Treasuries. This enables fast, low-cost transfers to remote citizens, overcoming traditional banking limitations.
The Stellar Development Foundation announced an updated mandate framework for 2025 and beyond, reorganizing its XLM holdings into four strategic focus areas: SDF Development, Stellar Growth, Product and Innovation, and Assets and Liquidity. The update reflects the network's evolution toward production financial infrastructure and real-world asset adoption.
Stellar Meridian 2025 in Rio showcased the evolution of Stellar's blockchain into production-grade infrastructure for payments, identity, RWAs, and stablecoins. Key sessions highlighted open systems, regulatory progress, privacy innovations, and real-world applications from partners like MoneyGram, Nubank, and Ondo Finance. LATAM and Africa emerged as blueprints for financial inclusion and efficient money movement.
Raja Chakravorti, Chief Business Officer at the Stellar Development Foundation, describes Stellar as invisible blockchain infrastructure that seamlessly integrates with existing financial systems to drive real-world financial inclusion. He highlights key partnerships with MoneyGram and Franklin Templeton, enabling crypto-to-cash services across 430K locations in 175+ countries. Stellar's focus is on scalability, institutional adoption, and making money accessible without users noticing the blockchain.
Hana Wallet partners with MoneyGram, powered by Stellar and USDC, to enable instant cash withdrawals of stablecoins in Southeast Asia. Users can convert USDC to local cash at over 350,000 MoneyGram locations without banks or exchanges. This bridges digital finance with cash-based economies for freelancers, families, and businesses.
Stellar has partnered with Chainlink to integrate CCIP, Data Feeds, and Data Streams into the Stellar ecosystem, enabling secure cross-chain asset transfers and institutional-grade tokenization while advancing financial inclusion for underbanked populations.
Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon warns that blockchain risks repeating history by becoming controlled by corporate monopolies rather than remaining open infrastructure. She argues for permissionless networks like Stellar over closed private blockchains that concentrate power and extract value.
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.
A Stellar Development Foundation Senior Marketing Advisor shares their first-month experience joining @StellarOrg to lead APAC strategy. They highlight Stellar's focus on real-world financial problems, the recent Soroban smart contract upgrade enabling complex dApps, and opportunities for founders and developers to build on the ecosystem.
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.
International AIDS Society used Stellar Disbursement Platform and Decaf Wallet to distribute USDC stablecoins to 248 scholarship recipients across 50+ countries, replacing traditional cash distribution with 425 successful blockchain payments at zero failure rate.
CHATS is a blockchain-powered platform revolutionizing humanitarian aid distribution with transparency, smart contracts, and direct cash/voucher assistance to vulnerable communities. It runs on multiple chains including Stellar and Polygon, using non-custodial, gasless smart contracts and stablecoins for secure, efficient fund disbursement. Key features include offline NFC transactions, real-time dashboards, and fraud prevention, benefiting NGOs, donors, vendors, and beneficiaries.
Stablecoins have surged to $250 billion in market value, driven by regulatory clarity from the GENIUS Act. The article explores how stablecoins work, their advantages over traditional banking systems, and their role in enabling financial inclusion, cross-border payments, and emerging DeFi innovations on networks like Stellar.
Women Biz shares July activities and announces August opportunities including English club, legal workshops, stablecoins education, and a Stellar Ideathon hackathon in Lima.
Kura, a Stellar-based digital payment solution founded by Stéphanie Joseph, enables merchants in Central America and the Caribbean to accept instant cross-border payments. The company received funding through Stellar Community Fund Round #31 and is piloting with merchants in the Caribbean to bring financial inclusion to underserved regions.
The International AIDS Society (IAS) partnered with Stellar Disbursement Platform and Decaf wallet to distribute $49,480 in USDC stablecoins to 248 scholarship recipients from over 50 countries at the 2025 IAS Conference in Kigali. This blockchain solution replaced inefficient cash envelopes and long queues with seamless, secure digital payments achieving 100% delivery success across 425 transactions. The initiative highlights Stellar's potential for modernizing global disbursements for NGOs.
The International AIDS Society (IAS) successfully distributed scholarships to 248 recipients across 50+ countries using USDC stablecoins via the Stellar Disbursement Platform and Decaf Wallet, eliminating cash handling and achieving 100% payment delivery with zero failures.
The Stellar Development Foundation hosted a panel at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development discussing how blockchain-based tools are delivering measurable results for underserved populations. The session explored real-world applications including the Stellar Disbursement Platform for healthcare worker payments and Decaf wallet for financial inclusion across geographic and socioeconomic borders.
The Stellar Development Foundation showcased 'Stable Summer' at ETHCC in Cannes, highlighting real-world stablecoin use cases including payroll in crisis zones, cash-in/cash-out flows, and institutional adoption. Key themes emphasized infrastructure, interoperability, trust-based design, and B2B payments over speculation.
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.
Trustless Work participated in Casa Builders CDMX, a Stellar-hosted hackathon in Mexico focusing on financial inclusion, digital identity, and public good transparency. Their team built Pacto, a decentralized P2P stablecoin ramp using Trustless Work's programmable escrow, and won the event. The hackathon united Latin American builders, with strong Costa Rican representation.
This article highlights Stellar blockchain's role in revolutionizing remittances, cooperative fund management, and financial inclusion in Latin America. It showcases apps like Tempo, Vibrant, and LOBSTR enabling instant transfers, transparent records, and bankless access. Stellar is positioned as a leader in practical blockchain adoption.
Raja Chakravorti, Chief Business Officer at the Stellar Development Foundation, discusses how Stellar's fast, low-cost blockchain is enabling financial inclusion globally, with use cases ranging from institutional adoption by Franklin Templeton to UN-backed humanitarian aid delivery in crisis zones.
MoneyGram has reached $30 million in transaction volume through its crypto-to-cash service on Stellar, operating in over 170 countries. The partnership demonstrates real-world blockchain adoption for financial inclusion, enabling users to convert stablecoins to local currency and facilitating humanitarian aid distribution.
Blend is a DeFi protocol primitive on Stellar that enables users to create customizable lending pools for depositing assets to earn interest or borrowing against collateral. The article explains Blend's core components including isolated pools, backstop modules, BLND tokens, and its integration with applications like the SCF-funded Meru wallet to expand financial inclusion.
