Stellar Ecosystem
News

The article argues that truly 'global' financial services are rare and never export a single product model. Instead, successful players like PayPal, Revolut, and HSBC operate as federations of local businesses adapted to each market's specific regulation, distribution, and trust dynamics. Writing from São Paulo's Stellar House event, Stellar Development Foundation's Chief Commercial Officer observes that digital assets follow the same pattern: builders who solve for local regulatory and market realities first, then connect to global liquidity, outcompete those attempting global exports. Stellar's permissionless infrastructure enables this by staying neutral on product form and leaving compliance and distribution to local builders.

Stellar's curriculum becomes the first official blockchain program at VKU in Da Nang. Rise In and the university designed a structured three-phase course: foundations in blockchain and Stellar Core, hands-on building with Stellar's tools, and final demo day with 100+ students deploying dApps on Testnet.

On July 18, the largest Stellar hackathon ever held in APAC wrapped three simultaneous demo days across Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Vietnam's event drew 150+ attendees evaluating 75 project submissions, Indonesia's Yogyakarta attracted 400+ participants with 86 submissions, and the Philippines ran an eight-hour marathon with 56 live pitches at GCash. The program converted a hackathon into a builder pipeline: teams spent weeks shipping functional, user-facing financial applications addressing real payment and access problems in Southeast Asia. Finalists advance to the APAC Grand Finale on July 31, competing across Local Finance & Real World Access, DeFi & Ecosystem Composability, and Payments & Consumer Applications tracks for $60K in prizes.

Stellar gained three institutional adoption wins in July: UNDP expanded blockchain payments to five countries, Bitwise added XLM to its main crypto index, and Tradable committed $1B in RWA tokenization on the network. Protocol 27 equipped Soroban with native delegation, enabling the autonomous agents now turning blockchain into payment infrastructure for AI commerce.

COZ supported StarBase Connect Day in Santos, Brazil, introducing Stellar to more than 140 students and regional innovators through an Ideathon. The event created a foundation for continued developer engagement in Baixada Santista, with a professional hackathon extending momentum into the region's tech community.

Vietnam is rapidly shifting from an emerging opportunity into a builder-driven market attracting global foundations. At DAVAS 2026, regulatory openness around fintech and blockchain, government alignment on innovation, and strong developer talent converged. Stellar and Rise In show how direct founder support and mentorship create sustainable ecosystem outcomes rather than pursuing growth metrics.

Anchorage Digital announced institutional custody support for CETES, tokenized Mexican government debt issued by Etherfuse on Stellar. The custody layer completes an infrastructure stack: Etherfuse tokenizes the underlying government bonds, Stellar provides the network, and Anchorage holds them securely for institutions managing global assets.

Stellar Philippines and Rise In concluded 'Build the Future of Finance' hackathon on May 23 with 165 registrations and 28 mainnet deployments in Manila. Five winners addressed financial infrastructure gaps: AbotPera (zero-connectivity rural payments), PinkRaft (Soroban developer tools), Axial (MSME liquidity), Sobre (overseas worker remittances), and TyFi (agricultural worker credit).

SCF #43 concludes with 85 submissions and 29 projects awarded across three distinct tracks: Open Track for novel on-chain use cases, Integration Track for existing ecosystem tools, and RFP Track for developer tooling needs. Total awards: $3.14M XLM. The referral program sourced 22 of 29 winners.

Stellar Development Foundation announces new Market Development leadership across six regions: Latin America, Brazil, Europe, Africa, Middle East, and APAC. The team will focus on converting Stellar's existing footprint into institutional adoption through region-specific knowledge and on-the-ground presence.

Drips launched Wave, a grants program for open source developers on Stellar, completing three cycles with thousands of contributors. The team also partnered with UNICEF to explore sustainable funding for digital public goods and updated their protocol to use Lit Protocol for faster GitHub repository verification.

Figure launches YLDS, a regulated yield-bearing stablecoin on Stellar, offering fintechs and neobanks in LATAM a compliant dollar savings product that earns yield similar to money market funds.

Stellar Development Foundation and CV Labs launched a 12-week accelerator program supporting 10 early-stage startups building payments infrastructure, tokenized real-world assets, and DeFi applications across EMEA. Selected teams receive up to $150,000 in XLM funding, technical support, and investor access, with the program running August-October 2026.

Rehoboth Wallet launches soon on Stellar for African users, offering non-custodial stablecoin holding, instant transfers, QR code payments, and daily yield earning.

A 12-week ambassador program at iDEAUFRO in southern Chile introduces students from diverse backgrounds to Stellar blockchain and Web3 development. The program uses Stellar Passport for identity management and project tracking, emphasizing that blockchain extends far beyond cryptocurrency to enable open, accessible global finance.

Guide to investing in USD from Latin America, covering stocks, bonds, investment funds, and DeFi stablecoins. Highlights Meru's DeFi platform on Stellar offering ~13% APY on USDC deposits with no minimum lock-up periods.

UNICEF's AidLink combines Rumsan, Xcapit's Shelter, and Kotani Pay into a modular blockchain pipeline for humanitarian cash transfers. A Cusco pilot with 270 beneficiaries reduced transfer costs by over 80% and achieved sub-30-second settlement with 100% fund delivery and full on-chain auditability.

The Stellar Development Foundation and TopNod announced at Consensus Hong Kong that TopNod's non-custodial Web3 wallet is integrating with the Stellar network, expanding access to Stellar's infrastructure across Asia, Africa, and Latin America with a focus on real-world assets and stablecoins.

Myaza launched a 1% cashback campaign for USDC deposits via Stellar, offering users a simple way to earn rewards while accessing fast, low-cost cross-border payments built on Stellar's efficient network.

Rise In's November 2025 monthly update highlights record-breaking HackStellar Istanbul with 52 projects, over 250 new projects from India events, and expansion into Vietnam. Top winning projects include Stellar x402 for HTTP micro-payments, Reset DeFi yield aggregator, and Sublayer subscription manager. Globally, over 300 projects and 1,300 builders are driving Stellar ecosystem growth.

The Marshall Islands launched USDM1, a Stellar-based sovereign bond token, through the Lomalo digital wallet to disburse universal basic income to citizens. The token generates yield for holders and addresses the nation's reliance on physical cash after banking sector collapse.

HoneyCoin, an African fintech platform, announces a strategic collaboration with Tether to integrate USDT into its payment ecosystem for merchants across Africa. This enables cheaper, borderless stablecoin payments for online and in-person transactions. The initiative is backed by investors including the Stellar Development Foundation.

AirTM, a cross-border payments network built on Stellar, reduces international payroll processing from days to minutes while saving companies 20-25% on fees. The company processes over $1 billion in stablecoin payments and serves 650,000 people across 192 countries by converting USDC to local currency in six minutes across 488 payment methods.

Stellar Meridian 2025 in Rio showcased the evolution of Stellar's blockchain into production-grade infrastructure for payments, identity, RWAs, and stablecoins. Key sessions highlighted open systems, regulatory progress, privacy innovations, and real-world applications from partners like MoneyGram, Nubank, and Ondo Finance. LATAM and Africa emerged as blueprints for financial inclusion and efficient money movement.

Stablecoins like USDC, integrated with Stellar and MoneyGram via Hana, are revolutionizing remittances in emerging markets by enabling near-instant, low-cost transfers convertible to cash. This addresses high fees and delays in traditional systems, particularly in Southeast Asia where remittances are projected to exceed $100 billion in 2025. The partnership provides financial stability and inclusion for unbanked populations.

Beans integrated DeFindex to launch stablecoin yield features in 3 weeks, attracting $610K in deposits within 90 days. The partnership eliminated 11+ months of development work by using DeFindex's pre-built yield infrastructure instead of building in-house.