DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
Mercado Bitcoin, Latin America's largest digital assets platform, now offers USDC on the Stellar network, enabling customers to transact with fees of a fraction of a cent. This marks the first time the exchange has offered the same asset across multiple networks.
Aquarius announces ICE tokens, a new mechanism for AQUA holders on Stellar to freeze their tokens and receive boosted liquidity rewards and enhanced voting power. By locking AQUA via the locker tool, users gain four non-transferable ICE tokens (ICE, upvoteICE, downvoteICE, governICE) that increase yields on SDEX/AMM and enable simultaneous use in liquidity and governance voting. ICE tokens melt linearly over the lock period, up to three years, with voting power scaling up to 10x.
Stellar Development Foundation submitted comments to the Federal Reserve on how CBDCs could improve financial inclusion, reduce payment costs, and enable cross-border remittances. The SDF highlighted Stellar's role in CBDC infrastructure, citing examples like Brazil's central bank partnership and cost comparisons showing Stellar's efficiency for remittances.
The Stellar Development Foundation joined Mercado Bitcoin's CBDC consortium for Brazil's LIFT Challenge to develop a digital Real. The initiative aims to demonstrate instant settlement and delivery versus payment for crypto-assets, with a pilot potentially launching in Q4 2022.
Mercado Bitcoin partners with Stellar Development Foundation on LIFT Challenge Real Digital, exploring CBDC use cases for Brazil's central bank digital currency launching in H2 2022.
The Stellar Development Foundation partnered with PwC US to create a blockchain sustainability assessment framework. Applying it to Stellar, they found the network uses just 481,324 kWh annually with 173,243 kg CO2 emissions, equivalent to 33.7 U.S. homes. SDF committed to offsetting the network's historical carbon footprint through carbon dioxide removal.
Aquarius Governance v2.0 launches with major upgrades including a mandatory discussion phase, editable proposals, redesigned fees, vote lock periods, and improved UI. These changes address low participation and other issues from v1.0, built on the Stellar blockchain via SDEX and AMM integrations. The system now encourages better proposals and early voting.
The Stellar Development Foundation advocates for clear stablecoin legislation that requires audited, fiat-backed reserves held in regulated banks. SDF emphasizes the need to distinguish genuine stablecoins from other token structures and calls for consistent global regulatory guardrails to protect consumers and build trust in blockchain payments.
Freighter 2.0, the Stellar browser wallet, now enables users to create, sign, and submit transactions directly from the extension, including trustline management and payments. The update features a refreshed UI built on the Stellar Design System and sets the foundation for future capabilities like asset swaps and claimable balance management.
Alfred Pay, a Stellar Community Fund winner, is building a LATAM-focused remittance platform using USDC on Stellar. The fintech operates as both an anchor and consumer wallet app, launching anchor services in the Dominican Republic this June with plans to expand across Latin America.
Stellar validators will vote on Protocol 19 upgrade on June 8, 2022, introducing new transaction preconditions and signer types to enable payment channels, bridges, and key recovery solutions. The upgrade enables Layer 2 scaling with Starlight prototype achieving 1.19 million payments per second.
Novatti Group announced the launch of AUDC, an Australian Dollar-backed stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain. The 1:1 AUD-backed digital asset will integrate into Novatti's payment solutions, enabling faster, lower-cost domestic and cross-border transactions with support from the Stellar Development Foundation.
Stellar Development Foundation CEO reflects on three years of leadership, highlighting past achievements like bringing USDC to Stellar and the MoneyGram partnership, present momentum with ecosystem products launching, and future priorities including smart contracts via Project Jump Cannon, bridging, and scalability.
The Stellar Development Foundation released its Q1 2022 report highlighting major initiatives: Project Jump Cannon for native smart contracts, Starbridge for Ethereum interoperability, $1.5M in Matching Fund investments, and continued USDC adoption across exchanges.
DFS Lab and the Stellar Development Foundation are launching their second Blockchain Bootcamp in April 2022, bringing together 10 African startups to build payment and financial inclusion solutions on Stellar over three days, with winners receiving prizes and demo day pitching opportunities.
The Stellar Development Foundation announced Project Jump Cannon will use WebAssembly (WASM) as its smart contract runtime. After evaluating EVM, Move, eBPF, and other options, the SDF chose WASM for its robust execution environment, thriving ecosystem, and alignment with Stellar's values of safety, scalability, and equitable access.
SDF launches Stellar Campus Experts, a community-driven program for university and bootcamp students to learn blockchain technology, organize campus events, and build careers in the space with stipends, networking, and exclusive opportunities.
Stellar Quest is splitting into two components: Stellar Quest Learn, an evergreen educational platform launching today with five initial quests and NFT badges, and Stellar Quest Live for periodic competitive events. The redesign addresses community feedback about accessibility and consistent engagement.
Newton, a Canadian crypto trading platform with 450,000 users, now supports USDC deposits and withdrawals on Stellar, offering near-zero transaction fees and instant settlement alongside multichain USDC support.
SDF spotlights two women building on Stellar: Mercedes Madanire in business development and Jeesun Kim in frontend development. They discuss their roles at Vesseo, a USDC wallet for Latin America, and share insights on representation and career growth in blockchain.
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 and Wirex released a 2022 cryptocurrency adoption report surveying 8,257 people across the UK, US, Singapore, and Mexico. Key findings show 81% of the general population has heard of crypto, 39% own or have owned it, and adoption is spreading beyond the stereotypical young male demographic to women and older adults.
The Stellar Development Foundation highlights three women leaders on its Ecosystem, Recruiting, and Business Development teams in celebration of Women's History Month, sharing their career journeys and insights on working in blockchain.
Velo Labs and Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) partnered to improve cross-border payments to the Philippines using blockchain technology, targeting the $34 billion annual remittance market with faster, cheaper, and more secure transactions.