Stellar Ecosystem
News

Coinme and the Stellar Development Foundation launched USDC on Stellar through Coinme's wallet and 40,000+ U.S. cash locations, enabling low-cost conversion between physical cash and digital dollars for financial inclusion.

MoneyGram won the 2023 FinTech Breakthrough Award for Best Use of Blockchain in FinTech, recognized for its on/off-ramp service on Stellar that bridges digital assets and local currency through MoneyGram retail locations worldwide.

Three Soroban projects born from hackathons and adoption programs showcase the ecosystem's early momentum. Sorobix, Chaincerts, and useSoroban.app demonstrate how developer tools and community support are accelerating smart contract adoption on Stellar.

MYKOBO has reduced its minimum crypto-to-crypto send and buy/sell values from €20/20 EURC to €1/1 EURC, making trading and transfers more accessible. This change aims to empower users of all trade sizes in the crypto economy. MYKOBO issues the EURC stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain, bridging European finance to blockchain.

Arf launched a USDC-backed working capital solution in partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation, providing unsecured short-term loans for cross-border payment institutions. Within four months, the platform deployed $80M across 800+ locations globally, generating $150M in cumulative on-chain USDC volume.

Soroban smart contracts on Stellar enable a unique cash-to-DeFi pathway through the network's anchor infrastructure and MoneyGram Ramps, allowing underserved populations to access financial services directly from cash deposits to income-generating protocols.

Litemint has launched a fully non-custodial ERC-721 compliant bridge for Stellar NFTs to Ethereum, enabling secure use as profile pictures on Web3 services like Twitter. The bridge locks Stellar assets and mints corresponding non-transferable NFTs on Ethereum, with decentralized recovery mechanisms. It leverages Stellar's SEP-39 for metadata and ensures high security without relying on central entities.

Stellar launched the Spacewalk bridge to Polkadot and Kusama via Pendulum, connecting DeFi applications to forex markets and Stellar's fiat on-ramps across 300,000+ MoneyGram locations worldwide. The bridge enables stablecoin transfers including USDC and regional currencies like Argentine pesos and Brazilian reals.

The Stellar Newsletter highlights the Soroban Adoption Fund with $100M in opportunities, including a $10M Stellar Community Fund program for Soroban projects and developer initiatives like Sorobanathon. It covers UNHCR's nomination for blockchain impact award using Stellar for aid in Ukraine, partnerships like Beans App with MoneyGram, and technical updates on Pull Mode and Ubuntu upgrades. Community events, policy priorities, and developer resources are also featured.

The Stellar Development Foundation appointed Asiff Hirji, President of MoonPay, to its board of directors. Hirji brings 30+ years of fintech experience from roles at Coinbase, Figure, and other major financial services companies, strengthening SDF's mission to make cross-border payments cheaper and more accessible.

Tori Samples, co-founder of Leaf Global Fintech (now BOSS Money Africa), discusses her journey building blockchain solutions for financial inclusion in Africa. She recently joined the Stellar Development Foundation as Senior Product Manager, leading work on Stellar Aid Assist for humanitarian disbursements.

Stellar was designed for interoperability, enabling low-cost transfers of all asset types across traditional finance, different blockchains, and web applications. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, Stellar facilitates value movement between all systems rather than replacing them.

Mercado Bitcoin and Stellar successfully tested a Brazilian CBDC on public blockchain, demonstrating delivery versus payment transactions with digital real. The pilot was part of Brazil's Central Bank LIFT Challenge to explore digital real use cases.

EURC is a Euro-pegged stablecoin launched on the Stellar blockchain by UAB MYKOBO, offering secure, fast, and sustainable transactions. It has seen significant adoption with over 150k in circulating supply and substantial trading volume on Stellar's DEX. To celebrate its launch and MYKOBO's anniversary, zero transaction fees are offered throughout March 2023.

Synced's February 2023 development log details progress on dashboard integration and familiarity with Stellar's Soroban platform via Hacka-Soroban-athon. March aims include adding description and chat features to dashboards, completing web redesign, and releasing to live app. Additional plans involve migrating from MongoDB.

The Stellar Development Foundation outlines its 2023 policy priorities, including advocating for robust blockchain regulation, pushing for bipartisan stablecoin legislation, and demonstrating real-world blockchain utility through projects like MoneyGram and Stellar Aid Assist.

BP Ventures announces sponsorship of Public Node's Stellar validator node, funding its uptime and monitoring. This supports the growth of the Stellar network and Public Node's mission for open blockchain infrastructure. The partnership highlights commitment to inclusive blockchain technology.