DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
The Stellar Development Foundation welcomes Raja Chakravorti as its new Chief Business Officer. With two decades of experience in fintech and payments from roles at Plaid, Root, and PayPal, Raja brings expertise in business development and financial services scaling to support the Stellar ecosystem's growth.
The article explores bridging traditional banking and crypto payments through seamless crypto-fiat integration, highlighting platforms like Polkadot and Stellar. It discusses stablecoins, cross-border transactions, and benefits for individuals, merchants, and businesses. The piece promotes Pendulum, a Polkadot-based solution for fiat-DeFi connectivity.
Puntored, a Colombian fintech serving low- and middle-income populations across Latin America, raised $2M from the Stellar Development Foundation's Enterprise Fund to expand its technological capabilities and enable cross-border transactions via the Stellar blockchain network.
Fernanda Orduña Rangel, co-founder of Decaf, shares her journey from industrial engineer to blockchain developer building financial inclusion solutions on Stellar. Decaf enables users in Latin America and Africa to hold value in USDC and invest, addressing real-world financial exclusion and inflation protection.
DECTA, an Ireland-based EMI, is partnering with French fintech Next Generation to launch EURT, a MiCA-compliant Euro-pegged stablecoin on Stellar and three other blockchains. The project, originally launched in 2017, is being relaunched in October 2024 under the new European regulatory framework.
An educational article introducing Stellar's blockchain network, explaining its Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), and demonstrating real-world applications through IBM World Wire and ClickPesa for cross-border payments and financial inclusion.
Decentralife interviews Bernardo Garcia, co-founder of Félix, a WhatsApp-based payments platform using AI and blockchain to enable cheap remittances for U.S.-based Latino immigrants to Latin America. Celebrating 10 years of the Stellar ecosystem, Garcia shares his immigrant journey and motivation to solve high-fee cross-border payment issues. Félix simplifies sending money via chat, delivering fast and affordable transfers.
Taurus, a digital asset infrastructure provider serving major financial institutions, has expanded its custody and tokenization platforms to the Stellar network, joining other major players like Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, and Circle in leveraging Stellar for real-world asset tokenization.
Taurus, a Swiss digital asset infrastructure provider, integrated its custody platform Taurus-PROTECT and tokenization platform Taurus-CAPITAL with the Stellar network, enabling banks and issuers to custody and issue tokenized assets with reduced fees and fast transactions.
WisdomTree Prime, a retail financial app built on Stellar, is now available in 41 U.S. states. The app tokenizes 13 digital funds and a gold token on Stellar, enabling near-instant settlement and blockchain-native financial services for consumers.
This article explores blockchain technology's role in promoting financial inclusion, particularly for the 1.4 billion unbanked and underbanked adults globally. It includes perspectives on open systems and the Stellar Development Foundation's treasury response to financial access challenges.
Zebec, through its investment arm Payroll Growth Partners, has acquired PayBridge and School Payroll Services to expand its payroll offerings and integrate blockchain technology into traditional systems. Key integrations with Circle and Stellar enable employees to receive salaries in USDC or XLM for efficient cross-border payments via the WageLink app. This positions Zebec as a leader in real-world streaming finance applications.
The Stellar Development Foundation submitted a response to the U.S. Treasury's Request for Information on Financial Inclusion, advocating for open-source blockchain technology and transparent systems to advance financial access. SDF emphasized the importance of free or low-cost digital financial services, smart contracts, and open data initiatives in creating inclusive financial systems.
Beans, a non-custodial wallet on the Stellar blockchain, announces a partnership with Kado to enable new deposit options including debit/credit cards, ACH in the USA, and PIX in Brazil. This integration offers users faster, cheaper ways to on-ramp fiat into Stellar for international transfers. The collaboration enhances accessibility and competitive rates for global remittances.
Velo Labs announced strategic partnerships with TransactCloud, FT Worldwide, and an unnamed fintech innovator to advance its Web3 Finance offerings. The collaborations aim to enhance liquidity, trading, and Web2-Web3 connectivity through Velo's Universe platform and Lightyear trading bot.
Australian crypto companies Upside and Stables announce a partnership to deliver Web3 education, events, and content, while providing Stables a Melbourne base at Upside HQ. Stables offers a digital wallet for spending, sending, and earning stablecoins, aiding businesses with treasury and payroll. The collaboration aims to boost crypto adoption in Australia.
The Stellar Development Foundation released its Q3 2023 report highlighting major progress on its roadmap, including Soroban's advancement toward Mainnet launch, security partnerships with Certora, enhancements to the Anchor Platform and Wallet SDK, and significant ecosystem milestones like Circle's EURC stablecoin launch and MoneyGram's planned wallet integration.
MoneyGram announced plans to launch a non-custodial digital wallet in Q1 2024 on the Stellar network, enabling users to move between fiat and stablecoins with cash-out access at 180+ countries through its global retail network.
Tempo France and nTokens launched a remittance corridor from EU to Brazil using Stellar blockchain, enabling 170+ Brazilian banks to receive funds with lower costs, faster speeds, and enhanced security through the Tempo mobile app.
Beans, a non-custodial payments app on Stellar, announced major updates including a redesigned UI, support for Nigerian Naira and USD bank deposits/withdrawals via new partners Link and Kado, an in-app QR scanner, and a new support page. The app has doubled its user base over three consecutive months.
A World Bank adviser discusses the critical role of remittances in global development, highlighting how they exceed foreign direct investment and development aid combined. The article examines barriers to efficient remittance flows—particularly high fees and currency conversion costs—and explores how mobile technologies and emerging solutions like blockchain could reduce costs and improve financial inclusion.
The Stellar Development Foundation became a minority investor in MoneyGram International during its go-private transaction with Madison Dearborn Partners, marking SDF's first treasury investment and securing a board seat to guide MGI's digital transformation and blockchain exploration.
Fonbnk is a fintech platform that enables financial inclusion in emerging markets by converting prepaid mobile airtime into USDC on the Stellar network, providing seamless on and off-ramps for cash-based economies across Sub-Saharan Africa.
MoneyGram International has launched MoneyGram Ramps, a cash-to-crypto on and off-ramp service powered by the Stellar blockchain and USDC stablecoin. The service enables unbanked and underbanked populations to convert physical cash to digital assets at MoneyGram's 480,000+ locations worldwide, addressing the critical last-mile problem in blockchain adoption.
Arf, a regulated liquidity and settlement platform, leverages the Stellar network and USDC to provide cross-border payment solutions for financial institutions. By eliminating pre-funding requirements and enabling same-day settlements, Arf has extended over $830 million in loans with $1.6 billion in on-chain transaction volume since 2022.
Vesseo is a wallet app built on Stellar by Sunship, Inc. (an SDF subsidiary) that enables Argentines to quickly and cheaply purchase and hold USDC to protect against peso devaluation. The app leverages Stellar's fast settlement, low fees, and asset issuance capabilities to provide a simple alternative to traditional dollar-holding methods.
Beans publishes a step-by-step tutorial on how to deposit and withdraw cash through MoneyGram integration, enabling users to move money in and out of their non-custodial app with zero fees.
Mary Saracco, Co-Founder and CFO of Latamex, shares her founder journey building Latin America's largest fiat gateway on Stellar. Her experience at the World Bank and frustrations with cross-border banking friction inspired her to create blockchain-enabled financial services for her home region.