DeFi, payments, tokenization, Soroban, governance, and project launches — curated daily from publications, project blogs, and community channels across the Stellar blockchain ecosystem.
Protocol 23 introduces CAP-67 events that can emit data for both new and historical ledgers. Operators must enable two new core flags—EMIT_CLASSIC_EVENTS and BACKFILL_STELLAR_ASSET_EVENTS—to build a complete unified events feed covering classic operations and Soroban transactions.
The Stellar Community Fund (SCF) #36 round received 53 submissions and awarded $2,088,654 worth of XLM to 23 innovative projects. Funded initiatives span stablecoin payments, DeFi infrastructure, cross-border remittances, compliance tools, and Soroban smart contract enhancements. Highlights include Stables, Splyce Finance, and Uniblock, showcasing the ecosystem's growing sophistication.
Pacto is a non-custodial, decentralized peer-to-peer exchange for Stellar-based stablecoins, built in 48 hours at the Casa Builder Hackathon using Trustless Work. It enables merchants and users to trade stablecoins for local fiat via on-chain smart escrow contracts without intermediaries. The open-source project supports community ramps, merchant off-ramps, and DAO payouts.
Trustless Work participated in Casa Builders CDMX, a Stellar-hosted hackathon in Mexico focusing on financial inclusion, digital identity, and public good transparency. Their team built Pacto, a decentralized P2P stablecoin ramp using Trustless Work's programmable escrow, and won the event. The hackathon united Latin American builders, with strong Costa Rican representation.
Trustless Work participated in the Stellar Hackathon in Mexico City, hosted by the Blockchain Acceleration Foundation. Builders from five countries, including a dozen from Costa Rica, focused on accelerating stablecoin adoption in Latin America through workshops and mentorship on escrow-enabled flows. The event highlighted Latin America's growing role in programmable finance.
Keyrails, a stablecoin-based operating system for cross-border payments in emerging markets, has selected Dfns to power its wallet infrastructure. The platform supports stablecoins across multiple blockchains including Stellar, enabling programmable treasuries, fast settlements, and compliance. This partnership enhances security and scalability for high-value transactions in regions like Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Range announces a partnership with Peersyst to bring its cross-chain monitoring, security, and intelligence tools to the XRPL EVM sidechain launching in 2025. XRPL EVM introduces Ethereum-compatible smart contracts to the XRP ecosystem while preserving XRPL's speed and low costs, enabling DeFi, staking, and interoperability via IBC, Axelar, and Wormhole. Range will provide day-one support including its Cross-Chain Explorer, Monitoring and Alerts, and Trail forensic tool.
Trustless Work has released an SDK MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration for Cursor, enabling AI-assisted development of escrow flows. The MCP allows developers to scaffold escrow integrations directly from their editor with autocomplete, type safety, and reduced friction.
Trustless Work has released a major update introducing two escrow contract types: Single-Release for one-shot payouts and Multi-Release for milestone-based payments. The API has been restructured with type-scoped endpoints, and a new React library is available in beta. Upgraded Backoffice and Demo dApps provide enhanced UX and examples for developers building on Stellar.
The U.S. GENIUS Act has passed the House, providing regulatory clarity for USD-pegged stablecoins and enabling compliant innovation. This is a major boost for builders on Stellar, especially with USDC and new entrants like PYUSD. It unlocks opportunities in LATAM remittances and programmable payments via infrastructure like Trustless Work.
Stellar released its 2025 developer roadmap, featuring upgrades to Lab 3.0/4.0 developer tools, Protocol 23 targeting 5,000 TPS, and enterprise payment features to position the network as a major DeFi and institutional blockchain.
MoneyGram has reached $30 million in transaction volume through its crypto-to-cash service on Stellar, operating in over 170 countries. The partnership demonstrates real-world blockchain adoption for financial inclusion, enabling users to convert stablecoins to local currency and facilitating humanitarian aid distribution.
Stellar is advancing its blockchain with a public roadmap emphasizing scalability, usability, and developer tools like Soroban optimizations, Freighter wallet, AI assistants Stella and Contract Copilot, and integrations with OpenZeppelin. It powers real-world assets with $522 million on-chain and $17 billion in volume across 70 countries. The ecosystem offers robust support via the Stellar Community Fund and production-ready infrastructure.
The Stellar Q2 testnet will reset on June 18 at 17:00 UTC, wiping all contracts, assets, accounts, and data. Simultaneously, Trustless Work v2.0 will launch on the main branch with major upgrades including multi-release escrows, API changes, and new escrow logic. Developers should prepare for breaking changes with upcoming guides and documentation.
Trustless Work launched v1 of its official NPM package (@trustless-work/escrow), enabling developers to integrate escrow infrastructure directly into their applications with minimal code. The release simplifies escrow deployment and is part of the project's roadmap toward mainnet launch.
This guide introduces Trustless Work, an escrow infrastructure on the Stellar blockchain, and provides step-by-step instructions for deploying a smart escrow on the Stellar testnet using a demo app. Users connect their Stellar wallet, configure details like financial setup, roles, and milestones, then deploy and interact with the escrow. It highlights ease of use without SDKs and offers bonus tools for integration.
Crypto card provider Rain has expanded its stablecoin-linked Visa cards to support Solana, Tron, and Stellar networks. This update enables companies on these chains to launch branded cards for real-world stablecoin spending anywhere Visa is accepted. The expansion highlights growing demand for blockchain-based everyday payments.
The Axelar Foundation and Stellar Development Foundation co-authored an article examining how blockchain interoperability is essential for retail payments to achieve the seamlessness of traditional payment systems. The piece highlights Stellar's payment innovations and argues for decentralized interoperability solutions like Axelar over custodial bridges.
MoneyGram launched MoneyGram Ramps, an API powered by Stellar and Circle's USDC that lets developers embed compliant cash-to-crypto and crypto-to-cash functionality. The service covers 30+ countries for deposits and 170+ for withdrawals.
Researchers uncovered critical vulnerabilities in browser wallets including Stellar Freighter, enabling attackers to silently steal recovery phrases and drain funds just by visiting a malicious site, without user interaction. Detailed exploits in Stellar Freighter, Frontier, and Coin98 wallets were reported and fixed with bounties. These flaws highlight risks in wallet architecture and the need for robust security.
The Stellar Community Fund (SCF) #34 round awarded $1,717,287 worth of XLM to 17 innovative projects building on the Stellar blockchain. Projects span DeFi, payments, developer tools, gaming, and infrastructure, showcasing Stellar's growing ecosystem for serious builders. Highlights include Greep Pay for stablecoin POS, NebulaVRF for on-chain randomness, and DappRadar for Soroban tracking.
The Stellar Community Fund (SCF) #33 round awarded $1,033,620 in XLM to 14 projects across Build Awards. Highlights include Stellarcarbon for carbon offsetting, CodeLnPay for cross-border payments, and Warmancer: Black Friday for blockchain gaming. The round introduced SCF 6.1 updates streamlining submissions for future rounds.
Goldsky offers a migration package for SimpleHash customers after its acquisition by Phantom, with services ending March 27, 2025. They provide priority onboarding, white-glove support, and 3 months free service. Stellar is listed among Goldsky's key clients relying on their high-performance infrastructure for token balances and transfers.