Stellar Ecosystem
News

Normal secures its second Stellar Community Fund grant of $80,000 (SCF #35) to launch its Crypto Index Protocol on the Stellar network. The protocol enables seamless global onboarding, local fiat support, and cost-effective diversified crypto index investing. Building on Stellar's ecosystem with partnerships like LOBSTR, Aquarius, and Beans, Normal aims to make crypto accessible worldwide.

The Stellar Development Foundation released its Q3 2024 report highlighting major ecosystem milestones including 9 million network addresses, $5M+ in Enterprise and Matching Fund investments, and the launch of Stellar Community Fund 6.0. Key achievements include Franklin Templeton's Benji platform reaching $450M in supply, Protocol 22 development nearing completion, and expanded ecosystem integrations with Dune and DefiLlama.

Normal announces the promotion of Justin Benjamin from Head of Growth to Chief Operating Officer. Justin has been instrumental in product development, community building, and customer acquisition since joining in 2022, especially after pivoting to crypto index funds post-FTX collapse. The company looks forward to scaling under his leadership as COO.

zkCross Network announces its oversubscribed seed and strategic funding rounds, backed by investors including Stellar, ahead of a $2.6M public sale. The project offers chain abstraction infrastructure to simplify cross-chain DeFi with features like messaging systems, liquidity aggregation, and decentralized protocols. A detailed roadmap outlines expansion across blockchains, targeting massive user growth.

Stellar is a leader in tokenized investment assets, enabling issuers to tokenize securities, commodities, and financial products like money market funds, ETFs, and bonds. The network offers benefits including cost reduction, operational efficiency, compliance controls, and fast 3-5 second transaction times.

The Stellar Development Foundation is accepting applications for its Female Founders Matching Fund, which provides $200K–$500K investments to female-led projects building on Stellar. Applicants must submit detailed information about their project, fundraising status, and planned Stellar integration.

The Block by Block podcast returns for season 2 with Denelle Dixon interviewing Joey Krug of Founders Fund about crypto investing, early-stage ventures, and lessons learned from backing founders in the space.

Stellar Development Foundation listed as creditor in Genesis bankruptcy with $13 million claim. SDF confirmed the loan but called it immaterial to its $200M+ treasury, stating it does not impact operations.

SDF invested $10 million in NetXD Inc., a Web3 platform for asset securitization and digital asset custody. NetXD will build on Stellar, leveraging its compliance features and native capabilities to enable embedded finance for businesses.

Grayscale is facing SEC scrutiny over whether Stellar (XLM), Zcash (ZEC), and Horizen (ZEN) tokens are securities, with the asset manager shifting its legal stance in recent filings to acknowledge these assets may currently qualify as securities under federal law.

Robinhood added Stellar Lumens (XLM) and Avalanche (AVAX) to its platform, bringing total supported cryptocurrencies to 15. XLM gained 6% in 24 hours following the announcement.

The Stellar Development Foundation announced a Matching Fund specifically for female founders, addressing the stark gender gap in crypto entrepreneurship where women receive only 2.2% of venture funding.

The Stellar Development Foundation launched a $30 million matching fund for early-stage companies building on Stellar, with initial investments in cross-border payments and fintech platforms serving emerging markets.

Grayscale Stellar Lumens Trust began trading on OTCQX under ticker GXLM, alongside new Grayscale trusts for Horizen and Zcash. This marks the first time XLM is available as a publicly-quoted security on a U.S. market.

The Stellar Development Foundation announced a new Matching Fund track within its Enterprise Fund to co-invest up to $500K alongside lead investors in early-stage companies building on Stellar. The fund targets pre-Series B startups globally, particularly in emerging markets, with expedited processing and a one-year integration timeline.

tZERO Crypto app now supports XLM alongside Bitcoin Cash, Cardano, Compound, and Uniswap, expanding its cryptocurrency offering to 15 coins on iOS and Android.

The Stellar Development Foundation invested $3 million in Settle Network, a Latin American cross-border payment platform, to support its stablecoin exchange StableX. This marks SDF's fourth Enterprise Fund investment this fiscal year.

Stellar Development Foundation released its Q2 2020 quarterly report highlighting team growth with 10 new hires, Protocol 13 network upgrade with fee bumps and multiplexed accounts, Enterprise Fund investments in Abra and SatoshiPay, and Samsung Galaxy smartphone integration.

SatoshiPay raised $550,000 in XLM via convertible loan from Stellar Development Foundation to launch a B2B instant money transfer service on Stellar, processing transactions in 5 seconds with minimal fees.

The Stellar Development Foundation converted its $550,000 Series A pledge to SatoshiPay into a loan after the coronavirus pandemic derailed the funding round, providing the micropayments firm with 12 months of runway while it develops new B2B solutions.

The Stellar Development Foundation invested $5 million in crypto wallet provider Abra to expand its products and services on the Stellar network. Abra plans to build next-generation banking infrastructure on Stellar, with product details coming in the coming months.

Stellar Development Foundation invested $715,000 in DSTOQ, a security token platform built on Stellar that tokenizes global assets like stocks for emerging market investors. This marks SDF's first enterprise fund investment.

Stellar Development Foundation announces its first investment through a new Enterprise Fund, committing $715K in lumens to DSTOQ, a Liechtenstein-based fintech enabling investment access in emerging markets via security tokens on Stellar.

Crypto.com added XLM to its Crypto Earn product, offering users up to 8% annual returns on Stellar deposits with weekly payouts and flexible terms.