DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
The Stellar Development Foundation published its 2023 Strategic Roadmap, prioritizing utility as the growth driver through three building blocks: making innovation easy, winning over builders, and focusing on real-world solutions to strengthen network effects.
The Stellar Development Foundation is heading to the World Economic Forum in Davos to showcase Stellar Aid Assist, a blockchain-based aid disbursement system now being piloted by UNHCR and IRC to deliver cash assistance to displaced persons in Ukraine without requiring bank accounts.
UNHCR launches a blockchain-based cash assistance pilot in Ukraine using Stellar, Vibrant wallet, and USDC stablecoins to distribute humanitarian aid to war-displaced Ukrainians. Recipients can convert funds to local currency and withdraw via MoneyGram.
Ginger Baker, Head of Financial Access at Plaid, has joined the Stellar Development Foundation board of directors. Baker brings over a decade of experience in financial services and payment technologies to support SDF's mission of creating equitable access to the global financial system.
The Stellar Newsletter highlights recent ecosystem developments including Soroban smart contracts live on Futurenet with a $100M developer fund and Sorobanathon. It covers Meridian 2022 on-demand sessions, Stellar Quest Live Series 5, bridge bounty grants, and the new Anchor Platform. Additional updates include stablecoin launches, SDF investments in NetXD and Wave, and community fund discussions.
The Stellar Development Foundation announced a $5 million investment in Wave, an African mobile money app serving over 10 million users across five countries. The investment supports Wave's integration with Stellar to expand affordable financial services across Africa.
The Stellar Development Foundation and ecosystem members gathered in Rome for Meridian 2022, their fourth annual conference. Themed around Leonardo da Vinci's 'Urgency of Doing,' the in-person event brought together the community to discuss solutions to pressing problems and left attendees motivated to take action.
Wirex announced USDC support on Stellar at Meridian conference, enabling 5 million users across 39 countries to buy, hold, and spend the stablecoin via their crypto-enabled debit card with up to 8% WXT rewards.
The Stellar Development Foundation announced five winners of its $5 million Bridge Bounty Program, awarding up to $1 million in XLM each to teams building cross-chain interoperability solutions connecting Stellar with other DeFi ecosystems. Winners include Allbridge, Axelar, Cubist, Kaladin, and Multichain.
Meridian 2022, Stellar's annual in-person conference, takes place Oct. 11-13 in Rome with 40+ sessions, 65+ speakers, and networking opportunities. Registration is free and mandatory online; the venue is Palazzo Brancaccio in central Rome.
SDF CEO Denelle Dixon testified before the U.S. Senate on the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, emphasizing Stellar's role in financial inclusion for the 2 billion unbanked people globally and calling for regulatory clarity to unlock blockchain's potential.
The Stellar Development Foundation announced Meridian 2022, its annual in-person conference returning to Rome October 11-13. The event will feature keynotes from Alexis Ohanian, CFTC Commissioner Caroline Pham, and industry leaders, with sessions on stablecoins, humanitarian aid, regulation, and blockchain's role in financial inclusion.
Stellar's Meridian 2022 conference returns to Rome for the first time since 2019, bringing together the community to tackle urgent global challenges through collective problem-solving and diverse perspectives on blockchain solutions.
Robinhood added Stellar Lumens (XLM) and Avalanche (AVAX) to its platform, bringing total supported cryptocurrencies to 15. XLM gained 6% in 24 hours following the announcement.
MYKOBO announces a strategic partnership with Beans, a Stellar Community Fund #10 winner, to support EURC Euro on and off ramps. This enables Beans users to deposit/withdraw Euros easily and access IBANs soon. Both companies are built on Stellar for cheaper, faster cross-border payments, with integration launching in early Q4 2022.
SDF, eCurrency, and ANZ's CBDC prototype solution has been shortlisted for the G20 TechSprint 2022, competing to demonstrate how central bank digital currencies can be issued and distributed efficiently on blockchain infrastructure.
BP Ventures won a $125,000 grant from the Stellar Community Fund for its solution enabling FinTechs to leverage USDC on the Stellar blockchain for payments. The platform integrates with MoneyGram's USDC services for seamless cross-border remittances. This highlights growing adoption of Stellar and USDC in the remittance industry.
Task.io, a mobile app built on Stellar, partners with Biochar Life to incentivize smallholder farmers in developing countries to produce biochar instead of burning agricultural waste. For each metric ton of carbon sequestered, one STS token is minted on Stellar and sold to carbon offset buyers, with proceeds funding farmer communities.
WhiteBIT, a major European exchange with 3M+ users, integrated USD Coin (USDC) on Stellar, enabling deposits and withdrawals. This expands USDC availability across digital asset platforms and demonstrates growing adoption of Stellar's stablecoin infrastructure.
Nium partners with Stellar Development Foundation to enable fiat payouts in 190 countries via API integration, allowing businesses to access real-time cross-border payment services without building their own infrastructure.
Nium and the Stellar Development Foundation announced a partnership enabling fiat payouts to 190 countries via Stellar. Businesses can now leverage Nium's API to facilitate near-instant cross-border payments without prefunding local treasuries, combining Nium's global reach with Stellar's blockchain infrastructure.
Mercado Bitcoin, Latin America's largest digital assets platform, now offers USDC on the Stellar network, enabling customers to transact with fees under one cent. This marks the first time the exchange has offered the same asset across multiple networks.
The Stellar Development Foundation joined Mercado Bitcoin's CBDC consortium for Brazil's LIFT Challenge to develop a digital Real. The initiative aims to demonstrate instant settlement and delivery versus payment for crypto-assets, with a pilot potentially launching in Q4 2022.
Mercado Bitcoin partners with Stellar Development Foundation on LIFT Challenge Real Digital, exploring CBDC use cases for Brazil's central bank digital currency launching in H2 2022.
The Stellar Development Foundation partnered with PwC US to create a blockchain sustainability assessment framework. Applying it to Stellar, they found the network uses just 481,324 kWh annually with 173,243 kg CO2 emissions, equivalent to 33.7 U.S. homes. SDF committed to offsetting the network's historical carbon footprint through carbon dioxide removal.