Stellar Ecosystem
News

Abroad participated in Stellar's Meridian 2025 conference in Rio de Janeiro, showcasing partnerships and real-world stablecoin payments in Latin America. Key highlights included the native issuance of PayPal's PYUSD on Stellar, HackMeridian innovations, and Abroad's launches with ZyptoApp and BeansApp. The event demonstrated Abroad's growth with 66 monthly active users and over 910 transactions on Stellar.

The Stellar Community Fund (SCF) #39 round awarded $1,115,655 in XLM to 12 innovative projects building on the Stellar network. Highlights include QuillTip for microtipping, Stallion for decentralized bounties, and RendBit for cross-border banking in Africa. The round featured record voter participation and governance updates to Neural Quorum Governance for fairer voting.

Visa is expanding stablecoin support to four new stablecoins on four unique blockchains, enabling banks to mint and burn them via its tokenized asset platform. The company already supports USDC, EURC, PYUSD, and USDG on Ethereum, Solana, Stellar, and Avalanche. This move highlights Visa's growing focus on stablecoins for cross-border payments, with stablecoin-linked card spending up fourfold year-over-year.

Stronghold's SHx utility token launched on Kraken exchange, marking its first U.S. listing. The token powers payments, settlements, and governance on Stellar, with new multi-chain capabilities via the SHx Bridge connecting Stellar and Ethereum through Axelar.

The Stellar i³ Awards 2025 recognized three standout projects at Stellar Meridian: Decaf won Impact for its non-custodial stablecoin app with 50k users, Etherfuse won Innovation for tokenized government treasuries and peso stablecoins, and DeFindex won Interoperability for its plug-and-play DeFi API for wallets.

This article analyzes McKinsey's 2025 Global Payments Report, highlighting stablecoins like USDC and PYUSD on the Stellar network as key to future payment rails amid margin compression, rail fragmentation, and AI-driven edge intelligence. It outlines practical applications for remittances, merchant settlements, B2B treasury, and agentic commerce. Stellar's low fees, Soroban smart contracts, and MoneyGram integrations position it as a pragmatic, programmable settlement layer.

WisdomTree launched a physically backed Stellar Lumens ETP with a 0.50% fee on SIX and Euronext, with Xetra listing planned for Oct. 15. The product provides institutional-grade exposure to XLM's spot price across European exchanges.

Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon warns that blockchain risks repeating history by becoming controlled by corporate monopolies rather than remaining open infrastructure. She argues for permissionless networks like Stellar over closed private blockchains that concentrate power and extract value.

Stellar processes an average of 252k USDC transactions daily, totaling nearly $50 million in volume, supporting both microtransactions and institutional flows. Analysis reveals EMEA-aligned transaction peaks, whale-dominated volume, and growing cross-chain activity via bridges like Decaf to Solana and Base. The network also faces scam token risks, but excels in real-world stablecoin money movement.

Abroad announces a strategic partnership with Zypto to enable instant crypto payments in Brazil using stablecoins like USDC. Users can pay via PIX QR codes or numbers, with instant settlement in Brazilian reais directly to recipients' accounts. Zypto's ecosystem, including its wallet and payment tools, integrates with partners like Stellar for seamless crypto-to-fiat usability.

Wirex, a UK-based digital payments platform, partnered with Crossmint to upgrade from EOAs to smart wallets for global scalability. This enables programmable governance, multichain support including Stellar, and flexible custody models. The shift reduces vendor lock-in and accelerates product launches across retail and institutional offerings.

DCM launched the Transparent Network (TPN), a blockchain-based instant payment system built on Stellar, to modernize Ukraine's financial infrastructure. TPN enables banks to process payments in under five seconds with 70% reduction in acquiring costs for merchants and 60% reduction in transaction costs for institutions.

Freedom Pay Wallet has won Stellar Community Fund #38, with BP Ventures celebrating their partnership in developing a non-custodial Stellar wallet. The wallet integrates with MoneyGram for cash-in/out at 400,000+ locations and supports USDC payments for prepaid Visa cards, gift cards, bill payments, and mobile top-ups. The SCF grant will expand program reach, features, and operational resilience.

Stripe and Paradigm's Tempo is a new blockchain optimized for stablecoin payments, featuring stablecoin fees, 100k+ TPS, and EVM compatibility, directly challenging Stellar's established position in cross-border payments. Stellar, with a decade of proven reliability, anchors, SCP consensus, and Soroban smart contracts, offers production-ready compliance and fiat connectivity. The article compares their strengths, suggesting both could complementarily serve fintech needs.

PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin is now live on the Stellar network, expanding access through wallets and platforms like Bitcoin.com, Chipper Cash, and Lobstr. The deployment enables businesses to access real-time working capital and PayFi solutions with near-instant settlement on Stellar.

MoneyGram is launching a stablecoin-based cross-border payment solution in Colombia powered by Stellar, Crossmint, and Circle's USDC. The mobile app lets users receive funds instantly, store USD stablecoins, and cash out globally with lower fees and faster settlement than traditional methods.

This article compares Hedera Hashgraph and Stellar Lumens as leading platforms for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, highlighting their distinct strengths: Hedera excels in enterprise-grade institutional tokenization with its native token service and partnerships like Lloyds Bank, while Stellar dominates in payments, stablecoins, and financial inclusion with backing from Franklin Templeton and MoneyGram.

International AIDS Society used Stellar Disbursement Platform and Decaf Wallet to distribute USDC stablecoins to 248 scholarship recipients across 50+ countries, replacing traditional cash distribution with 425 successful blockchain payments at zero failure rate.

CHATS is a blockchain-powered platform revolutionizing humanitarian aid distribution with transparency, smart contracts, and direct cash/voucher assistance to vulnerable communities. It runs on multiple chains including Stellar and Polygon, using non-custodial, gasless smart contracts and stablecoins for secure, efficient fund disbursement. Key features include offline NFC transactions, real-time dashboards, and fraud prevention, benefiting NGOs, donors, vendors, and beneficiaries.

Stellar has emerged as the leading blockchain for enterprise stablecoin payments, with major institutional adoption including PayPal's PYUSD launch and Visa's integration. The network offers compliance-first architecture, predictable costs, and global ramp infrastructure that make it ideal for regulated financial institutions.

Stablecoins have surged to $250 billion in market value, driven by regulatory clarity from the GENIUS Act. The article explores how stablecoins work, their advantages over traditional banking systems, and their role in enabling financial inclusion, cross-border payments, and emerging DeFi innovations on networks like Stellar.

HoneyCoin announces a $4.9 million funding round led by Flourish Ventures, with participation from Visa Ventures, Stellar Development Foundation, and others. The company, a full-stack payment orchestration platform using stablecoins and traditional rails, processes over $150M monthly across 45+ countries. Founded during COVID, it has achieved product-market fit serving millions of users in emerging markets, especially Africa.

Cheesecake Labs expands its five-year partnership with Stellar Development Foundation, serving as official ambassador at Blockchain Rio 2025 and Meridian 2025. The company has built multiple solutions on Stellar including MoneyGram Wallet, Vesseo Wallet, and MBRL stablecoin, positioning itself to capitalize on stablecoin opportunities following the GENIUS Act.