Stellar Ecosystem
News

This article highlights how Stellar’s Disbursement Platform (SDP) and Decaf Wallet solve challenges in humanitarian aid payments by enabling instant, transparent USDC transfers across borders. It contrasts these blockchain solutions with costly, fraud-prone traditional methods like cash delivery and prepaid cards. A step-by-step guide demonstrates easy setup and cash-out via MoneyGram in 180+ countries.

COCA, a stablecoin payments platform, has secured strategic investment from the Stellar Development Foundation and FunFair Ventures. The funding will accelerate COCA's expansion within the Stellar ecosystem, enabling seamless stablecoin payments through non-custodial debit cards and IBANs to over 80 million merchants worldwide.

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.

TruBit, Latin America’s leading crypto payment platform, has integrated with MoneyGram Access™, developed by MoneyGram in collaboration with the Stellar Development Foundation. This partnership enables seamless cash-to-USDC conversions at MoneyGram locations across key LATAM markets, targeting the region's $82 billion+ remittance economy. It leverages Stellar's blockchain for efficient cross-border payments and financial inclusion.

The Stellar Development Foundation announced that Ondo Finance's yield-bearing stablecoin USDY, backed by U.S. Treasuries and bank deposits, will launch on Stellar in the coming months. This expands Stellar's real-world asset ecosystem alongside issuers like Circle, Paxos, and Franklin Templeton.

Executioners Esports publishes an educational guide on Stellar blockchain, covering its fast, low-cost payment infrastructure, the Stellar Consensus Protocol, and Soroban smart contracts. The article provides developer onboarding steps and real-world use cases including DeFi, NFTs, and gaming.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced a strategic partnership to leverage blockchain technology for financial inclusion and sustainable development. The collaboration will create scalable solutions for cross-border payments, remittances, humanitarian aid, and cash transfer programs in developing regions.

The Stellar Development Foundation published a comprehensive 2024 year-in-review highlighting major ecosystem achievements including the mainnet launch of Soroban smart contracts, expansion of DeFi protocols like Blend, integration of payment solutions with MoneyGram and Stripe, real-world asset adoption through Franklin Templeton and Paxos, and humanitarian aid initiatives through UNHCR partnerships.

The Stellar Community Fund (SCF) #30 round awarded $2.17 million in XLM to 22 projects in the first round of SCF 6.0, including initiatives for DeFi, payments, humanitarian aid, NFTs, developer tools, and financial inclusion across the Stellar ecosystem.

This article explains USDT and USDC stablecoins, their features, blockchains, use in payments, comparisons, stability issues, and alternatives. USDC is highlighted on Stellar among other chains, while USDT supports a broader range. Both are key for stable crypto transactions despite past depegging events.

Stellar Development Foundation integrates Mastercard's Crypto Credential solution as the exclusive credentialing system for its ecosystem, enabling secure and compliant crypto remittances and peer-to-peer transfers through wallet providers like Coins.ph, Mercado Bitcoin, and Wirex.

Airtm, a global payments platform serving 2.5 million users, has scaled stablecoin payouts to enterprise customers using Bridge's Stablecoin Orchestration API on the Stellar network. Since launching in March 2024, nearly 50% of Airtm's enterprise payout volume now flows through Stellar-based USDC transfers, processing $1.2 billion in total stablecoin volume in 2024.

Chipper Cash has integrated with MoneyGram's global agent network, powered by Stellar, enabling seamless real-time cash-in and cash-out for its users across Africa and beyond.

The Stellar Development Foundation welcomes Raja Chakravorti as its new Chief Business Officer. With two decades of experience in fintech and payments from roles at Plaid, Root, and PayPal, Raja brings expertise in business development and financial services scaling to support the Stellar ecosystem's growth.

The article explores the rising potential of non-USD stablecoins in DeFi, highlighting their role in global financial inclusion and cross-border payments. It discusses EVM-compatible chains and projects like Spacewalk, which bridges Polkadot and Stellar ecosystems, alongside Vortex for fiat conversions. These innovations promise efficient on-chain FX markets and reduced reliance on traditional systems.

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 article explores bridging traditional banking and crypto payments through seamless crypto-fiat integration, highlighting platforms like Polkadot and Stellar. It discusses stablecoins, cross-border transactions, and benefits for individuals, merchants, and businesses. The piece promotes Pendulum, a Polkadot-based solution for fiat-DeFi connectivity.

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.

Stellar has released an interactive Anchor Network Map that visualizes the global reach of Stellar anchors across 180 countries. The map enables developers and financial institutions to discover on/off-ramp services and understand payment rail coverage by region.

The Stellar Development Foundation released its Q2 2024 quarterly report, highlighting network growth to 8.4 million addresses, real-world asset supply exceeding $598 million, and significant progress in tokenization and Soroban adoption. The report showcases achievements including WisdomTree's expanded retail access, $7.8 million in enterprise investments, and $5 million in Stellar Community Fund awards to 107 projects.

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.

Huma Finance publishes a comprehensive overview of PayFi (Payment Finance), a new frontier in real-world assets that combines stablecoins with financing mechanisms to enable scalable, compliant payment solutions. The article introduces the PayFi Stack—a framework with six layers (Transaction, Currency, Custody, Financing, Compliance, Application)—and highlights Stellar's role alongside Solana in providing high-throughput, low-cost transaction infrastructure for payments.

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.

An educational article introducing Stellar's blockchain network, explaining its Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), and demonstrating real-world applications through IBM World Wire and ClickPesa for cross-border payments and financial inclusion.

This article explains how to send money to Uganda using USDC on the Stellar Network via Bingtellar, a platform for affordable cross-border payments in Africa. It highlights low fees, accessibility, and security as key advantages over traditional remittances. A step-by-step guide demonstrates transferring USDC from wallets like Revolut to recipients who receive Ugandan shillings instantly.