Stellar Ecosystem
News

OpenZeppelin Stellar Contracts v0.7.0 released with governance voting support, ZkEmail DKIM registry, smart accounts rework, and reorganized RWA module with compliance guidelines and examples.

Stellar Protocol 25 (X-Ray) introduced BN254 elliptic curve and Poseidon hash function support, enabling zero-knowledge proofs as a first-class feature on Soroban. The article demonstrates a practical Sudoku game example using Noir circuits and Ultrahonk verification on Stellar smart contracts.

A technical deep-dive into Zero-Knowledge Proofs as a solution for blockchain scalability and privacy, featuring Noir DSL for circuit design and Soroban integration on Stellar. The author demonstrates production-ready ZK implementation through Cosmic Coder, a game that validates player progress on-chain using cryptographic proofs.

Untangled Loop enables delta-neutral vault strategies on Stellar by combining lending (Blend) and spot trading (Aquarius) to capture basis spreads between staking rewards and borrowing costs, with empirical analysis showing maximum vault capacity of ~500,000 XLM and execution limits of 50,000/day based on liquidity constraints.

x402, a protocol enabling autonomous AI agents to make micropayments without API keys or subscriptions, is now live on Stellar. The protocol uses HTTP 402 status codes to facilitate instant stablecoin payments, with Stellar chosen as the settlement layer due to its speed, low fees, and reliability.

OctoLend plans to enable Bitcoin as collateral for USDC loans on Stellar by leveraging NEAR's chain abstraction stack, including Chain Signatures for MPC-controlled BTC vaults and Intents for cross-chain proof verification.

A comprehensive technical exploration of privacy-preserving trading mechanisms on Stellar, comparing zero-knowledge proofs, multi-party computation, fully homomorphic encryption, and trusted execution environments. The authors built working prototypes using MPC and TEE approaches, with TEEs emerging as the most practical solution for production systems.

Hoops Finance released a major authentication update enabling passkey-controlled smart accounts on Soroban, allowing users to authorize DeFi operations via biometric authentication without seed phrases or browser extensions. The founder detailed months of foundational work building the custom authentication layer, demonstrating a complete DeFi lifecycle from account creation through multi-protocol atomic deposits and withdrawals.

Normal Finance completed a comprehensive security audit with Halborn, emphasizing that security must be a foundational design principle rather than a launch checkbox. The protocol prioritized clarity and modularity from inception to manage the elevated risks of index protocols handling pooled capital.

A technical guide demonstrating how to integrate Noir zero-knowledge circuits with Stellar's Soroban smart contracts using UltraHonk proofs and bb.js for proof generation.

Stellar Dev Skill is a new open-source tool that integrates with AI coding agents (Claude, OpenCode, Codex) to provide up-to-date Stellar development guidance, covering Soroban contracts, SDKs, APIs, wallets, security, and DeFi ecosystem resources.

Stellar's Protocol X-Ray upgrade (January 2026) introduces zero-knowledge proof verification capabilities enabling developers to build privacy-preserving applications while maintaining ledger transparency. The article demonstrates how association sets and view keys allow private transactions within compliance frameworks, combining financial privacy with regulatory oversight.

A developer guide comparing three zero-knowledge proof frameworks for the zkGaming on Stellar hackathon: RISC Zero, Noir, and Circom. Each framework offers different trade-offs in expressiveness, ease of use, and on-chain verification complexity.

Spiko launched tokenized funds on Stellar in October 2025, detailing how they adapted their infrastructure to Soroban's unique constraints: TTL-based storage, sequence number limitations, and RPC data retention. They implemented channel accounts and fee bump transactions to achieve high throughput while maintaining clean authorization.

The Stellar Development Foundation introduced Meridian Pay, a production-ready smart wallet built on Stellar Mainnet that launched at Meridian 2025 in Rio de Janeiro. The wallet uses passkey-based authentication, eliminating seed phrases and passwords while enabling seamless onchain transactions with zero user-facing fees.

A comprehensive guide to building decentralized applications on Stellar's Soroban smart contract platform, covering essential developer tools, a step-by-step roadmap from setup through deployment, and community resources for support.

Soundness Labs and Mysten Labs have developed PQ-Chain, a backward-compatible upgrade for EdDSA-based blockchains like Stellar, Solana, Sui, and Aptos that adds quantum resistance without hard forks or address changes. It leverages the existing quantum-secure seed in EdDSA keypairs, proven via PQ-NIZK proofs at the transaction and account levels. This opt-in approach provides immediate protection during the transition to native post-quantum signatures.

Dfns introduces BYOABI, enabling clients to import smart contract ABIs and interact with them natively from Dfns wallets. This upgrades Dfns to manage full smart contract lifecycles like minting, burning, and pausing under its security and governance model. Future expansions include support for Stellar and other networks.

Meridian 2025 featured an innovative NFT activation that transformed the conference into an interactive art experience, with 24 global artists creating 80 unique works. Attendees collected proof-of-attendance NFTs via QR codes and tap-to-collect mechanics using Meridian Pay smart wallet, marking the first major real-world implementation of Stellar's SEP-50 NFT standard.

Stellar Protocol 25 X-Ray, voting tomorrow, introduces native zero-knowledge proof verification capabilities to Stellar smart contracts, including support for BN254 elliptic curves, Poseidon hashing, and Noir circuit verification.

An article discussing the importance of financial privacy in blockchain systems and how Stellar's upcoming Protocol X-Ray upgrade will enable zero-knowledge proof verification in Soroban smart contracts, allowing developers to build privacy-preserving applications while maintaining blockchain transparency.

Inference, a formal verification framework, analyzes three WebAssembly-based blockchain platforms—Polkadot Substrate, Stellar Soroban, and Arbitrum Stylus—evaluating their architectural suitability for formal verification of smart contracts and core infrastructure.