Stellar Ecosystem
News

The Stellar Development Foundation hosted a panel at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development discussing how blockchain-based tools are delivering measurable results for underserved populations. The session explored real-world applications including the Stellar Disbursement Platform for healthcare worker payments and Decaf wallet for financial inclusion across geographic and socioeconomic borders.

Abroad has won the Stellar Community Fund Build Award #35 for its innovative crypto-fiat infrastructure enabling cross-border payments in Latin America. The award highlights new features like USDC-to-Pix conversions in Brazil with instant local settlements. This funding will accelerate Abroad's expansion across new payment corridors.

José Fernández da Ponte joins the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) as President and Chief Growth Officer, bringing expertise from PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin launch and fintech scaling. In an interview with Denelle Dixon, he emphasizes utility, trust, regulatory alignment, and community-driven growth to expand Stellar's adoption. His focus includes partnerships, distribution, and building non-excludable financial infrastructure for global inclusion.

Trustless Work participated in Casa Builders CDMX, a Stellar-hosted hackathon in Mexico focusing on financial inclusion, digital identity, and public good transparency. Their team built Pacto, a decentralized P2P stablecoin ramp using Trustless Work's programmable escrow, and won the event. The hackathon united Latin American builders, with strong Costa Rican representation.

XLM surged 6% to $0.3880 on Saturday, becoming the top performer among top 20 cryptocurrencies. The rally follows PayPal's announcement of launching its PYUSD stablecoin on Stellar, with executives highlighting the network's speed, low costs, and global reach across 170+ countries.

Arf uses USDC on Stellar to provide short-term working capital loans to licensed money service providers, enabling real-time settlement without requiring prefunding.

Keyrails, a stablecoin-based operating system for cross-border payments in emerging markets, has selected Dfns to power its wallet infrastructure. The platform supports stablecoins across multiple blockchains including Stellar, enabling programmable treasuries, fast settlements, and compliance. This partnership enhances security and scalability for high-value transactions in regions like Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

GearUp, a Stellar-based marketplace for creative professionals, has attracted over 500 signups and 140+ equipment listings in less than three months on mainnet. The platform enables creators to rent gear, purchase equipment, access courses, and book studio spaces in a unified ecosystem.

Airtm, Bridge, and Stellar blockchain have integrated to enable fast, low-cost stablecoin payouts for global freelancers and gig workers. Nearly half of Airtm's stablecoin payouts now use Stellar, processing over 1.2 million transactions across seven continents since March 2024. This partnership leverages Stellar's anchor network for seamless fiat on-ramps and off-ramps, revolutionizing cross-border payroll.

The U.S. GENIUS Act has passed the House, providing regulatory clarity for USD-pegged stablecoins and enabling compliant innovation. This is a major boost for builders on Stellar, especially with USDC and new entrants like PYUSD. It unlocks opportunities in LATAM remittances and programmable payments via infrastructure like Trustless Work.

Raja Chakravorti, Chief Business Officer at the Stellar Development Foundation, discusses how Stellar's fast, low-cost blockchain is enabling financial inclusion globally, with use cases ranging from institutional adoption by Franklin Templeton to UN-backed humanitarian aid delivery in crisis zones.

PayPal is bringing its PYUSD stablecoin to Stellar pending regulatory approval, enabling fast, low-cost cross-border payments and remittances through Stellar's network of on and off-ramps.

PayPal announced plans to launch its PYUSD stablecoin on Stellar, pending regulatory approval from NYDFS. The stablecoin, already live on Ethereum and Solana with nearly $1B market cap, will leverage Stellar's infrastructure for cross-border payments and financing applications.

MoneyGram has reached $30 million in transaction volume through its crypto-to-cash service on Stellar, operating in over 170 countries. The partnership demonstrates real-world blockchain adoption for financial inclusion, enabling users to convert stablecoins to local currency and facilitating humanitarian aid distribution.

Trustless Work launched v1 of its official NPM package (@trustless-work/escrow), enabling developers to integrate escrow infrastructure directly into their applications with minimal code. The release simplifies escrow deployment and is part of the project's roadmap toward mainnet launch.

Trustless Work presents escrow as a critical infrastructure layer for marketplace platforms, enabling non-custodial fund holding between buyers and sellers without requiring platforms to build custom payment systems. The article outlines how escrow solves the coordination problem in marketplaces and details the technical implementation using stablecoins and smart contracts.

Crypto card provider Rain has expanded its stablecoin-linked Visa cards to support Solana, Tron, and Stellar networks. This update enables companies on these chains to launch branded cards for real-world stablecoin spending anywhere Visa is accepted. The expansion highlights growing demand for blockchain-based everyday payments.

The Axelar Foundation and Stellar Development Foundation co-authored an article examining how blockchain interoperability is essential for retail payments to achieve the seamlessness of traditional payment systems. The piece highlights Stellar's payment innovations and argues for decentralized interoperability solutions like Axelar over custodial bridges.

The Stellar Development Foundation shared Q1 2025 ecosystem performance metrics and progress toward three ambitious 2025 goals: top 10 DeFi TVL ranking, top 10 monthly active wallets, and $3B in onchain RWAs. The network demonstrated real-world impact through institutional adoption, new wallet launches, and significant RWA issuance growth.

Stellar is a blockchain network focused on financial inclusion for unbanked populations through low-cost services like remittances and cross-border payments. It offers scalability via the Stellar Consensus Protocol, interoperability across systems, and support from the Stellar Development Foundation. Lumens (XLM) powers transactions and acts as a bridge currency, positioning Stellar as a leader in accessible DeFi.

A Stellar Development Foundation policy hub page featuring articles on payments and digital assets, including discussions on government spending with digital assets, stablecoin standards, and global consensus on stablecoins.

MoneyGram launched MoneyGram Ramps, an API powered by Stellar and Circle's USDC that lets developers embed compliant cash-to-crypto and crypto-to-cash functionality. The service covers 30+ countries for deposits and 170+ for withdrawals.