Stellar Ecosystem
News

Bitbond and Bankhaus von der Heydt launched EURB, the first EUR stablecoin issued directly by a banking institution on Stellar. The 1:1 EUR-backed asset provides a new on/off-ramp for the network and enables regulated tokenized securitization.

Circle Internet Financial will issue USDC stablecoin on Stellar, launching by February 2021. The asset will enable businesses to build payment apps with reliable access to tokenized USD for cross-border transactions.

The Stellar Development Foundation opposes the STABLE Act, arguing it would grant banks a monopoly over stablecoins and harm consumers by reducing competition and innovation rather than protecting them.

Ultra Stellar LLC acquired StellarX, a popular decentralized exchange on Stellar, expanding its product portfolio alongside LOBSTR wallet and StellarTerm. StellarX enables peer-to-peer trading of digital assets and fiat conversions directly from user wallets.

Velo Labs is building a Federated Credit Exchange Network on Stellar that enables partners from legacy finance, CeFi, and DeFi to issue digital credits pegged to fiat currencies by staking VELO tokens, using the Hermes Warp Protocol to bridge Stellar with other chains for smart contract functionality.

Meridian 2020, SDF's annual conference, brought together global leaders including Tim Berners-Lee and former World Bank President Jim Yong Kim to discuss blockchain's role in financial inclusion, cross-border payments, and solving real-world challenges through open networks and decentralized technology.

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.

SDF redesigned the Stellar Account Viewer with improved security features, hardware wallet support, and a new browser wallet called Freighter. The updated AV now emphasizes key management best practices and offers a better mobile experience.

SendIt is a user-friendly wallet built on the Stellar blockchain that enables sending and receiving payments via email addresses, eliminating the need for public keys or technical blockchain knowledge. It supports stablecoins, XLM, and asset swaps like USD to NGN for instant cross-border transfers via Stellar anchors. The testnet is live, with mainnet launch planned in two months to drive mass adoption and financial inclusion.

Lettuce Pay, a Stellar Community Fund grantee, surveyed 130 U.S. small business owners on cryptocurrency payment acceptance. Key findings: 30% have been asked to accept crypto, 75% would if it instantly settled to USD, and two-thirds believe crypto will become mainstream in five years. The company is building a product to let merchants accept crypto while dealing only with USD.

Stellar ecosystem leaders debate custodial vs. non-custodial key management approaches in a roundtable discussion, exploring how CAP-27 and SEP-30 support different solutions and which the SDF should prioritize for financial inclusion and adoption.

The article recounts the origin of Stellarscam.report, created to combat 'memo-phishing' scams on the Stellar Network where scammers send malicious memos with tiny XLM amounts to trick users into revealing secret keys. The author, frustrated by repeated scam reports on r/Stellar, developed a bot in mid-May 2020 to automatically send warning transactions to victims. Monthly stats show the bot countered tens of thousands of scam transactions, highlighting ongoing community efforts against persistent fraud.

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.

Stellar is skipping Protocol 14 and upgrading the public network to Protocol 15 on November 23, 2020. The change addresses a rare bug discovered during testnet testing that could have caused validator crashes. Developers running Stellar Core or Horizon must install updated versions before the upgrade.

Stellar CEO Denelle Dixon will speak on a panel at the IMF's annual meeting about the private sector's role in cross-border payments, alongside leaders from eCurrency, Mastercard, and Celo. The panel will be webcast on October 19.

Circle announced USDC stablecoin integration with Stellar blockchain starting Q1 2021, triggering a 10% price surge in XLM to $0.08 and doubling trading volumes. USDC becomes Stellar's first major USD-pegged stablecoin.

Circle announced USDC stablecoin support for Stellar blockchain by Q1 2021, making Stellar the third network to support USDC after Ethereum and Algorand. The move expands Circle's multi-chain strategy and enables Stellar developers to build financial inclusion solutions.