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Argentina Builder Challenge concludes two-week virtual hackathon (Sept 12-27) with winners announced. 44 developers created 20 projects across Genesis (new ideas) and Scale (existing) tracks, with participants from Argentina, Peru, Mexico, and Costa Rica. Third-place winner: Changuito, an AI shopping assistant using Stellar smart contracts for USDC payments.

Nelson, Risein Stellar Philippines' country lead, discusses blockchain's competitive edge in emerging markets. The key message: sustainable builders succeed through entrepreneurial thinking and 3-5 year roadmaps, not grant-chasing. Real opportunity lies in DeFi, where transparent, algorithm-driven systems outperform traditional banking.

Piggy Wallet brings family finance to Stellar to solve inflation in high-growth markets. Parents set up USDC savings accounts where kids complete chores to earn money. Founders Sofia Vasquez (CEO) and Matias (CPO) discuss gamifying financial literacy, why family finance is more than fintech, and how B2B2C partnerships with schools could drive mainstream adoption.

The Marshall Islands launches USDM1, a sovereign bond on Stellar backed by US treasuries, solving correspondent banking gaps and enabling universal basic income distribution across its dispersed island population.

Aid organizations in sanctioned regions use stablecoins to bypass broken financial infrastructure. OSUM pays Syrian hospital staff via Digibank's digital wallet and Stellar's bulk payment tool, cutting costs to 2% and delivery from months to minutes.

María Ariza discusses blockchain's role in modernizing traditional financial markets, focusing on post-trade settlement and asset tokenization. By enabling atomic settlement, blockchain reduces friction in trading infrastructure and operational costs. Tokenization also democratizes access to previously expensive investment classes like private equity and real estate by letting smaller investors fractionally participate.

Financial exclusion is a security risk. Candace Kelly, Stellar's chief legal officer, explains how blockchain reduces that risk, with examples from Ukrainian refugee aid and Haiti's unbanked population.

Bermuda's premier and central bank CEO discuss how government and regulator collaboration enables industry innovation. The 'Triangle approach' brought Digital Bermuda dollar, Kraken/Franklin Templeton partnerships, and tokenized reinsurance to market. The regulatory philosophy: be clear on the rules, then let companies play.

SCF Demo Day showcased six mainnet-live projects on May 2026, marking a milestone: 50 SCF-funded projects have launched on Stellar mainnet in 2026. Across three rounds, SCF has awarded $7.7M to approximately 75 projects.

Stellar Philippines is establishing a builder-focused developer ecosystem in the island nation through university bootcamps, hackathons like the ongoing IPAC event, and developer bounties. Led by country lead Nelson Lumbres and tech lead Armelin Obingar, the initiative draws from their prior success building ICP Philippines into a community of thousands of developers. Rather than chasing speculative investment, they emphasize building technology infrastructure during market downturns—positioning Philippine developers for first-mover advantage.

Daniel Vogel, founder of Bitso, discusses his vision for fintech in Mexico and LATAM. Built around solving real customer problems through technology, Bitso now handles 10%+ of US-Mexico remittances with an institutional-first adoption strategy.

SDF CEO Denelle Dixon explains why LATAM fintechs like Felix Pago, Alfred, and Airtm build on Stellar: the warm, supportive ecosystem and shared focus on payments as the killer app, not blockchain hype. Conviction in cross-border payments is now validated by $65B+ annual remittance volume.

José Fernandez Da Ponte, a key Stellar figure, discusses why payments is becoming a compelling use case in LATAM fintech. The ecosystem is moving beyond hype cycles to infrastructure-first thinking: companies like Etherfuse, Félix, and Meru are building on Stellar not to sell crypto, but to solve real financial problems at scale. Distribution wins when 80% of users don't know they're using blockchain.

Bermuda's government announced it will move its national economy on-chain using the Stellar network, becoming the world's first fully on-chain national economy. The government approved digital asset acceptance and investment policies, and will modify its FinTech Development Fund to support the ecosystem.

Two Stellar ecosystem projects, ArcusX and SoZu Pay, were awarded the InstaWords Award for a four-week sprint. ArcusX is building a freelance marketplace on Stellar to reduce fees and payment delays in Latin America, while SoZu Pay is developing NGO disbursement infrastructure using stablecoins and the Stellar Disbursement Platform.

Marshall Islands government launched USDM1, a Treasury-backed token on Stellar, to distribute universal basic income on-chain. The initiative replaces physical cash transfers to remote populations across the scattered island nation, reaching 40+ merchants and enabling peer-to-peer transfers. IMF, SDF, and government officials discuss implementation and policy implications.

A documentary-style introduction to Medellín's emerging web3 and blockchain innovation ecosystem, exploring how the city is becoming a hub for builders experimenting with decentralized finance and digital asset ownership.

In Bolivia's severe economic crisis marked by dollar shortages and fuel scarcity, businesses are turning to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins for survival. A local app called Meru, built on the Stellar blockchain, enables payments with USDC via QR codes and provides stablecoin-linked cards for global spending. This infrastructure offers a lifeline to importers and entrepreneurs bypassing official exchange restrictions.

A talk exposes failures in the global payment system, where freelancers in the Global South face account closures, frozen funds, high fees, and exclusion from platforms like PayPal and Payoneer. It highlights the need for better infrastructure amid a growing remote workforce. AirTM, built on the Stellar blockchain, offers a peer-to-peer marketplace solving last-mile cash-out issues with fast, flexible conversions.

Educational overview of Stellar's mission to create accessible global finance, explaining the Stellar Consensus Protocol, anchors as fiat bridges, and introducing Soroban smart contracts with a practical crowdfunding example.

Blessed UX and Telus Cooperative are launching a five-workshop Web3 builder program in Chile, teaching participants to create wallets, smart contracts, and deploy apps on Stellar.

The final Stellar Community Fund (SCF) Mainnet Demo Day of 2025 features five live projects: Jetpad Finance (smart wallet for African stablecoin payments), Rahat (anticipatory humanitarian aid on Stellar), Rozo (intent-based stablecoin payment API), Stellar Carbon (carbon credit bridge), and SourceSwap (DeFi aggregator). Hosted by Gemma from SDF's ecosystem growth team, it highlights SCF's community-driven funding and 2025 achievements including over $50M in post-funding raises. Projects demonstrate Stellar's utility in payments, aid, DeFi, and sustainability.

Podcast on interoperability in blockchain featuring Meru and Etherfuse discussing stablecoin and stablebond adoption across Latin America, regulatory progress, and building financial infrastructure for emerging markets.

Stellar Development Foundation hosts a discussion on Meru, a Stellar-based non-custodial wallet enabling stablecoin adoption in Bolivia amid dollar shortages. Carlos Neira explains Meru's organic growth, user behaviors like QR payments and high-yield savings via Blend, and why Stellar's developer tools and financial interoperability were key choices. The talk covers regulatory shifts, B2B expansions, and emerging market opportunities.