DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
CEX.io has integrated MoneyGram and Stellar to enable users to convert USDC to physical cash and vice versa at participating MoneyGram locations across the EEA, Africa, LATAM, and select European countries.
Normal announces the promotion of Justin Benjamin from Head of Growth to Chief Operating Officer. Justin has been instrumental in product development, community building, and customer acquisition since joining in 2022, especially after pivoting to crypto index funds post-FTX collapse. The company looks forward to scaling under his leadership as COO.
Huma Finance closed a $38 million investment round ($10M equity, $28M in tokenized RWAs) led by Distributed Global with participation from Hashkey Capital, Folius Ventures, Stellar Development Foundation, and TIBAS Ventures. The funding will support expansion to Solana and Stellar's Soroban network.
Stellar has partnered with Hypernative to adopt its real-time threat detection and response platform to protect the network and projects building on it from hacks and security threats.
This article showcases real-world impact stories from the Stellar ecosystem, highlighting how stablecoins and blockchain technology are enabling financial inclusion in emerging markets. It features projects like Decaf, MoneyGram Access, Félix, Bitso, Vibrant Wallet, and ClickPesa that are bringing payments, remittances, and microfinancing to unbanked and underbanked populations globally.
The Stellar Community Fund launches version 6.0 with enhanced support for ecosystem projects, integrating a new Kickstart bootcamp program, streamlined Build Awards up to $150K, post-launch growth initiatives including DraperU's Embark Accelerator, and category-specific delegate panels for improved governance.
Puntored, a Colombian fintech serving low- and middle-income populations across Latin America, raised $2M from the Stellar Development Foundation's Enterprise Fund to expand its technological capabilities and enable cross-border transactions via the Stellar blockchain network.
Soroswap.Finance, the first DEX on the Soroban Blockchain in the Stellar ecosystem, announces the listing of $NGNC, a Naira-pegged stablecoin natively supported on Stellar. This enhances liquidity, FX utility, and cross-border payments for Nigerian users. Users can trade, add liquidity, and swap NGNC with assets like XLM, BTC, ETH, and USDC.
The Stellar Development Foundation and DEV announced the winners of the Build Better on Stellar: Smart Contract Challenge, with over $50,000 in prizes distributed across tutorial and dApp categories. Winners included projects like Soroban by Example, Entry X (decentralized ticketing), and DVILLA (sustainable e-commerce), with overall winners receiving $13,000 and all-expenses-paid trips to Meridian conference.
Phoenix DeFi Hub has launched on Stellar's Soroban smart contract platform, starting with a decentralized exchange in May and planning an NFT marketplace and additional protocols. The platform aims to be a comprehensive DeFi solution leveraging Stellar's on/off-ramp infrastructure and stablecoin ecosystem.
PaltaLabs and Soroswap hosted an educational event at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile on August 8, 2024, bringing together 50+ entrepreneurs and developers to explore blockchain, DeFi, and smart contracts on Stellar. The event featured presentations on Soroswap's decentralized exchange, USDC integration, regulatory considerations, and networking opportunities.
DECTA, an Ireland-based EMI, is partnering with French fintech Next Generation to launch EURT, a MiCA-compliant Euro-pegged stablecoin on Stellar and three other blockchains. The project, originally launched in 2017, is being relaunched in October 2024 under the new European regulatory framework.
Balanced Network's Q2 2024 update details deployments on five new blockchains including Avalanche, Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Base, and Havah, alongside smart contract audits and cross-chain preparations. Governance saw 19 proposals passed, with the DAO earning $33k in fees and burning ICX as part of economic enshrinement with ICON. Q3 plans include cross-chain loans and launches on Injective, Optimism, Polygon, and Stellar.
This article explains the role and importance of Lumens, Stellar's native currency, detailing how they function as transaction fees, maintain network security through minimum balance requirements, and serve as a bridge currency for cross-border payments. It also highlights Stellar's unique consensus protocol (SCP) and its advantages over traditional blockchain networks.
Coinspect has published the results of their security audit of the Tricorn Bridge's Soroban integration, conducted in collaboration with Boosty Labs and the Stellar Development Foundation. The audit identified 3 high-risk, 6 medium-risk, and 1 low-risk vulnerabilities in the smart contract's Rust source code and Golang backend. All findings have been addressed by the development teams, enhancing Soroban security knowledge.
Balanced, a cross-chain DeFi platform originally on ICON, has rapidly expanded with five new blockchain connections in 2024, boosting availability by 250%. Upcoming plans include front-end integrations for Injective and Optimism, cross-chain loans, and phase two connections to Solana, Stacks, Stellar, Sui, and more. The update highlights improved trading with unified multi-chain assets and Stability Fund enhancements.
Etherfuse, a tokenized real-world assets platform, raised $3 million in seed funding co-led by White Star Capital and North Island Ventures, with participation from the Stellar Development Foundation. The company is tokenizing emerging market government debt on Stellar and Solana blockchains, starting with Latin American sovereign bonds.
The Stellar Development Foundation donated $250,000 to support Glo Dollar's integration into the Stellar ecosystem. Glo Dollar is a stablecoin that donates 100% of its profits to charitable causes, enabling users to support philanthropy without explicit donations through remittances and social payouts.
The Stellar Development Foundation and DEV Community are launching the Build Better on Stellar: Smart Contract Challenge, running through August 18, offering a $50,000 prize pool and free trip to Meridian Conference for developers building dApps with Soroban smart contracts.
This guide explores zero-knowledge proofs (ZK Proofs) on the Stellar network, explaining how they enable privacy, scalability, and interoperability for financial applications. It covers ZK Proof fundamentals, implementations like zk-SNARKs and zk-STARKs, and their applications in DeFi, financial inclusion, and privacy-preserving systems.
BlockEden.xyz is adding commercial Soroban RPC, indexing, and GraphQL APIs for Stellar developers. The multi-chain API marketplace, which supports Sui, Aptos, Solana, and 12 EVM blockchains, will offer tiered rate limits, developer analytics, and Horizon-compatible data models. The expansion aims to streamline development on Stellar's smart contracts platform.
Pendulum's Q2 2024 roundup highlights the launch of their Forex AMM on Testnet powered by Nabla and progress on the Spacewalk bridge uniting Stellar and Polkadot ecosystems. Key developments include vDOT collateral from a successful Polkadot treasury proposal, stablecoin offramping to bank accounts, Soroswap integration, Subscan listing, and new liquidity pools on Zenlink for Stellar holders. Governance referendums advanced asset registrations and network upgrades.
MYKOBO is transitioning its EURC stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain to Circle's EURC, affecting over 25K asset holders. This move supports MiCAR compliance and expands services to Ethereum, Avalanche, and Solana. Current services will continue uninterrupted during the transition.
Coinbase submitted CFTC filings to list futures products for five tokens—Polkadot, Shiba Inu, Stellar Lumens, Avalanche, and Chainlink—with trading slated to begin on or after July 15. The expansion aims to give traders more access points for risk management and price speculation.
The Stellar Development Foundation announces its commitment to increasing gender diversity in the Stellar ecosystem and partnerships with SheFi to empower women builders. SDF will sponsor SheFi's Brussels summit in July, featuring keynotes on real-world blockchain use cases and an activation showcasing Stellar's new passkeys capability.
Taurus, a digital asset infrastructure provider serving major financial institutions, has expanded its custody and tokenization platforms to the Stellar network, joining other major players like Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, and Circle in leveraging Stellar for real-world asset tokenization.
Taurus, a Swiss digital asset infrastructure provider, integrated its custody platform Taurus-PROTECT and tokenization platform Taurus-CAPITAL with the Stellar network, enabling banks and issuers to custody and issue tokenized assets with reduced fees and fast transactions.
GYEN and ZUSD stablecoins are now available for trading on Bitstamp, a major regulated exchange founded in 2011. The listing enables users to easily convert between USD and these Stellar-based stablecoins with enhanced security and compliance features.