DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
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.
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.
This article explains how to integrate the Stellar Network into SME businesses, focusing on public-key cryptography, federation for human-readable addresses, and QR code support in Stellar wallets. It highlights Stellar's advantages over Ethereum ENS and compares it to Bitcoin's bip 0021 payment URIs. Examples include smart anchors like Flutterwave for simplified bank integrations.
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.
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.
YieldBlox, from the Script3 team, aims to address Stellar ecosystem challenges like poor capital efficiency and weak incentives by introducing money markets for lending and borrowing. It enables passive users to earn interest on deposits while active users leverage assets, boosting liquidity and productivity. Additionally, it provides fintech platforms with revenue models through yield delegation and staking incentives.
Project Venus is a DeFi protocol on Stellar using Turing Signing Servers (TSS) to enable trustless smart contracts without an on-chain VM. It implements short-term FX forwards to improve capital efficiency for Stellar-based financial institutions like remittance companies. TSS leverages off-chain servers (turrets) combined with Stellar's multi-sig for efficient DeFi.
Wyre launched a Savings API enabling FinTechs to offer yield-earning savings products using Stellar USDC, with returns far exceeding traditional U.S. savings accounts. The API provides easy on-ramps to Stellar assets and monthly compounding earnings with no ACH fees.
Denelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation, discusses how blockchain enables transparent, fast cross-border payments and financial inclusion. She highlights USDC on Stellar and the role of anchor institutions in building global remittance corridors.
USDC expansion on Stellar enables new money flows through anchors like Wyre, Stably, BitGo, and FinClusive, creating fast, low-cost cross-currency transactions and global financial interoperability.
Stably launches a SEP-24 compliant fiat on/off ramp API for Stellar wallets, enabling seamless USDC integration. The fintech company also plans SEP-31 support for international bank transfers and highlights Stellar's protocol-level tokenization as simpler than smart-contract blockchains.
Stably launched on/off ramp integration for USDC and USDS stablecoins on Stellar, enabling seamless deposits and withdrawals for Stellar wallets and anchors. The integration marks the next phase of Stably's partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation to expand borderless payment infrastructure.
Two Stellar Community Fund finalists, COINQVEST and Anclap, are partnering to deliver inflation-free payment processing in Argentina. COINQVEST provides merchant payment solutions on Stellar, while Anclap offers anchor services and digital currency payments, demonstrating ecosystem network effects.
Wyre, a crypto infrastructure and banking-as-a-service provider, is becoming a USDC anchor on Stellar to enable faster, cheaper cross-border payments. The company will launch USDC-MXN corridors and expand to GBP, CAD, AUD, and EUR, leveraging the Stellar DEX for better foreign exchange rates.
Stellar Development Foundation invested $5 million in Wyre, a blockchain payments company, to integrate payment APIs and on/off ramps for USDC stablecoin across USD, GBP, CAD, AUD, and EUR pairs on the Stellar network.
Stellar Development Foundation invested $5 million in Wyre during a Series B2 funding round to expand USDC on/off ramps and payment infrastructure across USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, and AUD pairs.
Stellar Development Foundation celebrated 2020 as a landmark year, processing 1.553 billion total operations on the network and growing from 12 to 20 anchor services. The ecosystem saw 61% growth in relevant assets and 21X increase in transaction volume, driven by strategic focus on network robustness, trust, and sustainable use cases.
Bitbond and Bankhaus von der Heydt launched EURB, the first EUR stablecoin issued directly by a banking institution on Stellar. The 1:1 EUR-backed asset provides a new on/off-ramp for the network and enables regulated tokenized securitization.
Circle Internet Financial will issue USDC stablecoin on Stellar, launching by February 2021. The asset will enable businesses to build payment apps with reliable access to tokenized USD for cross-border transactions.
SendIt is a user-friendly wallet built on the Stellar blockchain that enables sending and receiving payments via email addresses, eliminating the need for public keys or technical blockchain knowledge. It supports stablecoins, XLM, and asset swaps like USD to NGN for instant cross-border transfers via Stellar anchors. The testnet is live, with mainnet launch planned in two months to drive mass adoption and financial inclusion.
Centre announced USDC stablecoin will launch on Stellar in Q1 2021, expanding the stablecoin beyond Ethereum and Algorand. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire highlighted the value of Stellar's interoperability for ecosystem growth.
Stellar validators will vote on Protocol 15 upgrade on November 23, 2020, introducing Claimable Balances and Sponsored Reserves to simplify user onboarding and reduce friction for anchors and app developers building on the network.
Stellar's SEP-24 and SEP-31 standards define how anchors integrate with wallets and each other for fiat on/off-ramps and cross-border payments. SEP-24 enables direct user deposits/withdrawals through wallet interfaces, while SEP-31 allows anchor-to-anchor bank transfers without end-user involvement.
Stellar is purpose-built for stablecoins, enabling interoperable global payments by bridging fiat and digital currencies. The network's native asset issuance and Anchor infrastructure create a frictionless cross-border payment system with near-instant settlement and ultra-low costs.
The Stellar Development Foundation and FinClusive partner to enable compliant financial access through Stellar's blockchain. FinClusive provides a comprehensive compliance toolkit and on-off ramp services for anchors, addressing de-risking practices that exclude underserved populations from financial services.