Stellar Ecosystem
News

This article introduces Stellar blockchain as a solution to slow, expensive cross-border payments, highlighting its fast 3-5 second confirmations, minimal fixed fees, and real-world focus via anchors and SCP consensus. It covers Stellar's origins, differences from other blockchains, tools like Stellar Laboratory for testnet experimentation, and the recent Soroban smart contracts launch. The piece promotes the first episode of 'Hola Stellar' video series for beginners.

BP Ventures' StellarMesh Anchor project has won a Stellar Community Fund #40 Build Award, recognizing its role in connecting global exchange liquidity to Stellar's onchain rails. The infrastructure enables instant, compliant funding for Stellar wallets via SEP-24/31 standards. This milestone validates the project's contribution to interoperability and real-world asset movement on Stellar.

Diego Yanez's alfred, an SCF-funded anchor-as-a-service platform for Latin America, evolved from a consumer wallet into a B2B infrastructure provider enabling businesses to access liquidity in local currencies and digital assets on Stellar. The article showcases how SCF support enabled alfred to pivot strategically and raise $3.5M in additional funding.

The Stellar Dev Diaries series follows the Freelii team's journey building a remittance chatbot on Stellar, from hackathon wins through securing Stellar Community Fund grants to mainnet launch. Episode 2 covers their pivot strategy, Telegram mini app development, and use of Stellar Anchors for on-ramping.

Chipper Cash has integrated with MoneyGram's global agent network, powered by Stellar, enabling seamless real-time cash-in and cash-out for its users across Africa and beyond.

Stellar has released an interactive Anchor Network Map that visualizes the global reach of Stellar anchors across 180 countries. The map enables developers and financial institutions to discover on/off-ramp services and understand payment rail coverage by region.

OwlTing Group integrated its OwlPay Wallet Pro with Stellar to support USDC stablecoin, enabling compliant cross-border payments for U.S. users. The Taiwan-based fintech received strategic investment from the Stellar Development Foundation as part of an eight-figure funding round.

MYKOBO announces SEPA rails support for Circle’s EURC stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain, enabling European users to deposit and withdraw Euros via the LOBSTR wallet. EURC is fully reserved and redeemable 1:1 for Euro, issued on multiple chains including Stellar. This enhances Euro stablecoin interoperability and accessibility on Stellar.

Stellar Anchors serve as bridges between traditional finance and the Stellar blockchain, enabling fiat-to-digital asset exchanges, but face trust issues due to centralization. The new Anchor Transparency Node, powered by Log Store Network, provides verifiable transparency for off-chain transactions. This enhances trust, supports real-world assets, and fosters inter-business confidence in the Stellar ecosystem.

This article explains how Stellar's blockchain technology enables fast, low-cost cross-border payments by combining a frictionless blockchain pathway with local anchor partners for currency conversion. It contrasts Stellar's approach with traditional SWIFT wire transfers and highlights key advantages including settlement in seconds, minimal transaction costs, and full transparency.

The Stellar Anchor Platform now supports two on and off-ramp standards, enabling businesses to integrate cross-border payments and fiat-to-digital asset exchange on Stellar. Companies like Banxa and Flutterwave are already using the platform to expand their payment services across regions.

The Stellar Development Foundation commissioned The Block to research cash-to-crypto on-and-off-ramps globally, highlighting how these access points serve as critical entry points to the digital asset economy on the Stellar network.

MoneyGram International has launched MoneyGram Ramps, a cash-to-crypto on and off-ramp service powered by the Stellar blockchain and USDC stablecoin. The service enables unbanked and underbanked populations to convert physical cash to digital assets at MoneyGram's 480,000+ locations worldwide, addressing the critical last-mile problem in blockchain adoption.

Kazim Ozyilmaz from Arf discusses how the Swiss-regulated settlement banking platform uses Stellar for cross-border B2B financing and liquidity, operating as a meta anchor for financial institutions with DeFi integration planned.

Stellar leads all blockchains with 322,000 off-ramps and 475,000+ total cash-to-crypto ramps globally, with particular strength in underserved regions like Africa, Asia, and South America where traditional finance infrastructure is limited.

Bitso integrated Stellar's Anchor Network to enable USDC payments to Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico, leveraging blockchain to improve cross-border settlement times and costs for businesses and remittances.

This article explains what anchors are on the Stellar network—organizations that bridge traditional banking systems to Stellar, enabling users to exchange fiat currency for digital assets. It covers anchor types, benefits, and how to become one through the Anchor Platform.

The Stellar Newsletter highlights upcoming events like Meridian 2023 in Madrid with Idris Elba, MoneyGram's USDC case study on Stellar, and Coinbase's integration with USDC on the network. It covers improvements to the Anchor Directory, wallet on/off-ramp integrations, Soroban infrastructure projects, and a new Soroban security bug bounty. Developer updates include proposed transaction changes and SCF submission best practices.

Coinbase now supports USDC deposits and withdrawals via Stellar, enabling millions of users to access faster, low-cost digital dollar transactions with near-zero fees and 5-second settlement times across 180+ countries.

Stellar Ramps enables digital wallets to connect to a global network of anchors for on and off-ramp services through standardized integrations, allowing seamless fiat-to-crypto conversions across 180+ countries without custom builds per anchor.

Stellar Development Foundation announced updates to the Anchor Directory, adding search functionality, contact info, and filters for SEP standards to help wallets and anchors discover and connect with compatible partners on the network.

SEP-24 is a standardized API that enables anchors to offer hosted deposits and withdrawals directly within apps, eliminating the need for custom integrations and improving user access to on/off ramps for fiat and digital assets.

BP Ventures has launched three new open-source crypto wallets to facilitate company integration with the Stellar Blockchain. These include a white-label retail wallet supporting key SEPs, a compact command-line wallet, and documentation for Stellar Anchor integration. The initiative underscores BP Ventures' commitment to open blockchain networks.

BPV announces its Spring 2023 events schedule, highlighting attendance at major fintech and blockchain conferences in Stockholm and beyond. They promote their enterprise non-custodial Stellar wallet, Anchor in a Box, and invite meetings or demos. Events include STHLM Fintech Week, MONEY Live, Pay 360, and Paris Blockchain Week.

SDF launched the Anchor Platform at Meridian, a new product that reduces development time for fintechs integrating into Stellar by translating existing APIs into SEP-compliant interfaces. Bitso and Red Chapina are already using it for cross-border payments.

Stellar Development Foundation launched the Anchor Platform, a prepackaged API that enables businesses to connect to Stellar in three steps with reduced development time and cost. The platform simplifies fiat-to-digital asset integration for banks and money transfer operators.

Vitreous, a transparent fundraising platform built on Stellar, won SCF #10. The platform uses Stellar's low fees and anchor network to enable global fundraising with community-enforced accountability through public transaction visibility.

SDF launches Stellar Ramps, a suite of open standards enabling applications to connect to a global network of on and off ramps provided by Stellar anchors, making it easier for users to convert fiat to digital assets and vice versa.