DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
Stellar Development Foundation invested $750K in Cowrie Integrated Systems, a London-based fintech enabling cross-border payments and remittances across Africa, particularly Nigeria, while engaging with regulators on cryptocurrency policy.
Velo Labs, a Stellar-based cross-border settlement protocol backed by Thai conglomerate CP Group, has acquired Interstellar, a Stellar payment startup, in a nine-figure deal. The merger brings Interstellar's leadership to Velo and aims to accelerate blockchain remittance development across Southeast Asia.
Settle Network and Stellar launched ARST and BRLT stablecoins pegged to Argentine peso and Brazilian real respectively, enabling fast cross-border remittances between Latin America's two largest economies and addressing financial inclusion for millions of unbanked citizens.
Denelle Dixon, CEO of Stellar Development Foundation, spoke at the IMF World Bank Annual Meetings on a panel about cross-border payments, emphasizing that private sector innovation must prioritize use cases, interoperability, and developer-friendly technology to enable financial inclusion through permissionless networks.
Velo Labs, a Stellar-based fintech platform, announced a partnership with Terra to build a next-generation payment system. The team has also partnered with Band Protocol for FX data oracles and Matrixport Cactus for custodial services, advancing its federated credit exchange network for Southeast Asian remittances.
Denelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation, briefed the House Financial Services Committee on blockchain's role in transforming payments, focusing on how Stellar enables fast, low-cost cross-border remittances through real-world examples like Cowrie in Nigeria and Tempo in Europe.
Saldo, a Mexican government-approved app, enables 20,000 migrant workers in the U.S. to send remittances home via Stellar's network using peso-backed stablecoins. At Stellar Meridian conference, builders emphasized regulatory compliance as essential for real-world adoption, contrasting with crypto's move-fast ethos.
Paysend, a London-based fintech serving over 1 million users, is launching a stablecoin on Stellar to enable instant global payments without cross-border fees for expats and multi-currency account holders.
IBM Blockchain World Wire, built on Stellar, now operates in 72 countries with 47 currencies and 44 banking endpoints. IBM signed letters of intent with six global banks to issue stablecoins on the network and partnered with Stronghold to enable USD stablecoin settlement.
Coinbase Pro announced it will accept XLM deposits and enable trading for Stellar's native asset, with deposits opening for at least 12 hours before trading begins to establish liquidity.
Singapore-based TransferTo is partnering with Stellar to enable low-cost blockchain-based cross-border remittances for underbanked populations in emerging markets, with plans to send regular payments across the Stellar network by Q4 2018 using Lumens as the settlement currency.
A developer created 'stcli', a simple, single-file Python REPL command-line wallet for Stellar-based assets like ETH, BTC, and EURT. It emphasizes code transparency, ease of review, and support for testing Stellar remittance functions including federation and compliance. The wallet addresses gaps in existing options by being Linux CLI-friendly and fully auditable.
The Stellar Development Foundation obtained Sharia compliance certification from the Shariyah Review Bureau, making Stellar the first distributed ledger protocol certified for Islamic finance in money transfer and asset tokenization. This enables Islamic financial institutions across the Gulf Cooperation Council and Southeast Asia to integrate Stellar technology into their compliant offerings.
Stellar, IBM, and KlickEx announced a blockchain-based cross-border payments solution now processing live transactions across 12 currency corridors in the Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand, and UK, dramatically reducing costs and settlement times.
Tempo Money Transfer integrated with Stellar blockchain to enable remittances from Europe to the Philippines via Coins.ph, allowing customers to send funds using just a recipient's name and phone number with 3-second settlement times.
Stellar announced partnerships with ICICI Bank, Tempo Money Transfer, Flutterwave, and Coins.ph to build cross-border payment solutions using its blockchain infrastructure, targeting remittances and international money transfers with reduced fees.
Coins.ph, Flutterwave, ICICI Bank, and Tempo Money Transfer have integrated with Stellar, enabling near-free remittances and cross-border payments across Southeast Asia, Africa, and India. The Philippines now has 22,000 cash-out locations for Stellar-based transfers.
Stellar.org is distributing lumens to Bitcoin holders as part of a strategy to seed the ecosystem with developers and increase network liquidity. The initiative aims to attract early adopters who understand distributed ledgers to build real-world applications like payments, remittances, and financial services.
Stellar partnered with Oradian, a fintech providing core-banking software, to launch instant money transfers across 200 microfinance branches in Nigeria, serving 300,000+ clients in rural areas with affordable, real-time payments replacing traditional cash delivery methods.
Stellar is a decentralized protocol enabling cross-currency transactions with built-in exchange and gateway system. The Stellar Development Foundation is distributing 95% of 100 billion stellars for free to bootstrap adoption, with 50% going to account signups, 25% to nonprofits focused on financial inclusion, and 20% to Bitcoin and Ripple holders.