DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
SatoshiPay raised $550,000 in XLM via convertible loan from Stellar Development Foundation to launch a B2B instant money transfer service on Stellar, processing transactions in 5 seconds with minimal fees.
The Stellar Development Foundation converted its $550,000 Series A pledge to SatoshiPay into a loan after the coronavirus pandemic derailed the funding round, providing the micropayments firm with 12 months of runway while it develops new B2B solutions.
Stellar Development Foundation aims to become the global payments standard within 5 years, with CEO Denelle Dixon highlighting CBDCs as a key opportunity. The foundation is pursuing government adoption of CBDCs on Stellar's network, though founder Jed McCaleb acknowledges this remains early-stage. Protocol 13 and Horizon 1.0 upgrades are planned for June.
The Stellar Development Foundation invested $5 million in Abra, a crypto financial services app operating in 155 countries, to support Abra's integration with the Stellar blockchain and expand financial services globally.
Stellar Development Foundation announces its first investment through a new Enterprise Fund, committing $715K in lumens to DSTOQ, a Liechtenstein-based fintech enabling investment access in emerging markets via security tokens on Stellar.
Mike Kennedy, creator of Zelle, became CEO of Interstellar, a Stellar-based blockchain payment platform competing with Ripple and Swift. Interstellar is crypto-agnostic and aims to enable faster, cheaper cross-border payments for banks without correspondent banking networks.
Stellar is hosting its first-ever conference, Stellar Meridian, in Mexico City on November 4-5. The event will focus on financial inclusion, payments innovation, and the protocol's role in shaping the future of global finance.
Jesse Lund, IBM's global head of blockchain for financial services, has departed the company. Lund led IBM's World Wire payment network, which used Stellar's blockchain to facilitate cross-border payments for banks across 72 countries. Stellar's co-founder confirmed the partnership remains active despite his departure.
Wirex launched 26 fiat-backed stablecoins on Stellar and added Lumens support to its crypto debit card, enabling users to spend USD, EUR equivalents via VISA. The circular process of converting fiat to stablecoin and back raises questions about practical utility.
IBM launched World Wire, a real-time global payments system built on Stellar that connects regulated financial institutions and replaces legacy correspondent banking. Supporting 47 currencies across 72 countries, it represents a major enterprise adoption milestone for the Stellar network.
Denelle Dixon, former Mozilla COO, has joined the Stellar Development Foundation as CEO, succeeding creator Jed McCaleb who moves to chief architect. Dixon brings experience in privacy advocacy, open internet policy, and operations leadership to guide Stellar's growth and partnerships.
SatoshiPay partnered with Axel Springer, Europe's largest digital publisher, to enable micropayments for news content using Stellar Lumens. The integration is expected to launch in spring 2019 across Axel Springer's brands including Business Insider and Bild.
The Stellar Development Foundation outlines its vision for financial inclusion, emphasizing how Stellar's blockchain infrastructure enables local fintech entrepreneurs to reduce costs, accelerate go-to-market speed, and access global markets. The post features three companies building inclusion solutions on Stellar: Seamless Money, FinClusive, and Wala.
Stellar and Ripple, both born from the same 2014 fork, are competing to replace SWIFT in cross-border payments. Ripple secured Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank while Stellar partnered with IBM on Blockchain World Wire, but both face a bear market downturn.
Lightyear, formed by the Stellar Foundation, acquired San Francisco-based blockchain fintech Chain. The deal, rumored at $500m, will move Chain's operations to the Stellar network as part of Lightyear's rebranding to InterStellar.
IBM Blockchain World Wire, built on Stellar's protocol, launched as a near-real-time cross-border payments system. The platform uses digital assets to bridge fiat currencies and promises faster settlement with reduced transaction costs for financial institutions.
Celsius Network, a crypto lending platform, partnered with Lightyear.io to offer borrowing and lending services for Stellar-based projects and ICOs. Celsius will add Stellar Lumens support to its wallet and enable interest-earning on Stellar tokens.
Stellar is reportedly in talks to acquire Chain.com, an enterprise blockchain company founded in 2014 that has raised $40m and worked on token infrastructure for major financial institutions.
The Stellar Development Foundation and Luxembourg House of Financial Technology published a 40-page white paper analyzing ICOs, covering technical elements, regulatory frameworks, use cases, and global regulatory developments to educate policymakers and industry leaders.
Deloitte integrated with Stellar to launch a Digital Bank application enabling instant cross-border payments for consumers and businesses, with transactions resolving in around 5 seconds and plans for multiple financial institution partnerships by 2017.
The Future of Money & Technology Summit in San Francisco featured a dedicated digital currency track with discussions on bitcoin, blockchain, and Stellar. Panelists highlighted emerging markets as key to cryptocurrency adoption and discussed innovations like sidechains.