Stellar Ecosystem
News

Stellar Development Foundation announced plans to open-source the Stellar Disbursement Platform by Q3, enabling developers and organizations to build bulk payment and on/off-ramp solutions for humanitarian aid and financial inclusion use cases.

The Stellar Development Foundation showcased Stellar's real-world utility at Paris Blockchain Week, featuring keynotes on humanitarian aid delivery via Stellar Aid Assist, Soroban smart contracts workshops, and panels on enterprise payments with stablecoins like GYEN and ZUSD.

Stellar Development Foundation launched Stellar Aid Assist, a stablecoin-based platform enabling humanitarian organizations to distribute cash aid via USDC through the Stellar network. The platform eliminates intermediaries, reduces costs to near-zero, and provides recipients secure access to funds without bank accounts, currently piloted with Ukrainian refugees.

Cebuana Lhuillier, the Philippines' largest microfinance provider, integrated with Stellar to offer blockchain-based remittances to 2,500 branches, enabling near-instant settlement and lower fees for cross-border payments.

FinClusive and Anclap launched a pilot program on Stellar demonstrating that blockchain-based remittances between the US and Colombia cost roughly half traditional methods (2.68% vs 5.36%), using stablecoins like USDC for faster, cheaper cross-border transfers.

AMA recap with MYKOBO CEO Seyi Akin-Olugbemi, issuer of the EURC Euro stablecoin on Stellar. He discusses his background in fintech, the motivation behind MYKOBO for financial inclusion in Africa, and why Stellar is ideal for value transfer. MYKOBO app supports EURC, USDC, XLM, and AQUA, all on Stellar, with upcoming liquidity pools.

Thomaz Texeira, CEO of nTokens, discusses building fintech solutions on Stellar in this founder interview. He explains how blockchain democratizes finance globally and why smart contracts will enable programmable money for underserved markets.

Coinme integrated USDC on Stellar across its 40,000+ U.S. cash locations, enabling low-fee cash-to-digital conversions and near-instant peer-to-peer payments. The partnership brings financial inclusion to unbanked Americans through Stellar's efficient payment infrastructure.

Arf, a Swiss-regulated settlement banking platform backed by the Stellar Development Foundation, launched Arf Credit Line, offering unsecured USDC-based working capital financing for licensed financial institutions. The solution enables same-day cross-border settlements without pre-funding, generating $150 million in on-chain USDC volume within four months.

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.

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.

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.

The Stellar Development Foundation published its 2023 Strategic Roadmap, prioritizing utility as the growth driver through three building blocks: making innovation easy, winning over builders, and focusing on real-world solutions to strengthen network effects.

USDC addresses inefficiencies in cross-border payments with regulated, on-chain settlement. Four use cases—remittances ($1B+ via SDF partnership), B2B payments, liquidity provision, and global financial access—demonstrate institutional adoption at scale.

The Stellar Development Foundation is heading to the World Economic Forum in Davos to showcase Stellar Aid Assist, a blockchain-based aid disbursement system now being piloted by UNHCR and IRC to deliver cash assistance to displaced persons in Ukraine without requiring bank accounts.

The Stellar Development Foundation's 2022 year-in-review highlights major milestones: 7M+ network accounts, Soroban smart contracts launching mid-2023, MoneyGram Ramps enabling cash-to-crypto conversion, and Stellar Aid Assist delivering humanitarian aid via blockchain.

UNHCR launches a blockchain-based cash assistance pilot in Ukraine using Stellar, Vibrant wallet, and USDC stablecoins to distribute humanitarian aid to war-displaced Ukrainians. Recipients can convert funds to local currency and withdraw via MoneyGram.

Ginger Baker, Head of Financial Access at Plaid, has joined the Stellar Development Foundation board of directors. Baker brings over a decade of experience in financial services and payment technologies to support SDF's mission of creating equitable access to the global financial system.

Airtm CEO Rubén Galindo Steckel discusses how blockchain and cross-border payments can enable Latin Americans to participate in the digital economy, reducing dependency on unstable local governments and creating income opportunities without migration.