Stellar Ecosystem
News

The Stellar Development Foundation and TopNod announced at Consensus Hong Kong that TopNod's non-custodial Web3 wallet is integrating with the Stellar network, expanding access to Stellar's infrastructure across Asia, Africa, and Latin America with a focus on real-world assets and stablecoins.

KindFi announces its attendance at Stellar Meridian 2025 in Rio de Janeiro, themed 'The Blueprint,' alongside Costa Rica's Trustless Work ecosystem projects. They highlight Trustless Work's Stellar-based escrow infrastructure, GrantFox for grants, and Pacto for P2P trading. The event focuses on real-world finance, stablecoins, DeFi, and partnerships for transparent crowdfunding in LATAM.

Stellar Light, the ecosystem directory and analytics platform, has launched major updates including a unified Stablecoin Explorer tracking 22+ verified stablecoins, a searchable directory of 230+ Stellar projects, and an Ideas & RFP platform for builders. The platform is now positioned as shared infrastructure connecting projects, users, and institutions across the Stellar ecosystem.

Soundness Labs and Mysten Labs have developed PQ-Chain, a backward-compatible upgrade for EdDSA-based blockchains like Stellar, Solana, Sui, and Aptos that adds quantum resistance without hard forks or address changes. It leverages the existing quantum-secure seed in EdDSA keypairs, proven via PQ-NIZK proofs at the transaction and account levels. This opt-in approach provides immediate protection during the transition to native post-quantum signatures.

COCA's 2025 review highlights its transformation from a crypto wallet to a stablecoin banking ecosystem with massive growth in users, card volume, and $COCA token value. Key achievements include Stellar integrations for USDC/EURC, a Series A with Stellar Development Foundation, and product launches like COCA 2.0 and rewards. The company outlines ambitious 2026 plans including Apple Pay, non-custodial accounts, and global expansion.

Lantern Finance positions itself as a superior alternative to Nexo for crypto-backed loans, supporting Stellar (XLM) alongside other major cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, and SOL. It highlights better interest rates (e.g., 13% for XLM vs. Nexo's 18.9%), higher LTV ratios for some assets, a 72-hour grace period for margin calls, and zero liquidation fees. Lantern emphasizes enhanced security via BitGo custody and transparent collateral management.

Lantern Finance is presented as a superior alternative to Arch Lending for crypto-backed loans, supporting more currencies including Stellar (XLM), offering better security with BitGo custody and insurance, lower interest rates on select assets, zero liquidation fees, and a 72-hour grace period. The comparison table and FAQ highlight Lantern's advantages in collateral options, risk management, customer service, and overall borrower protections. Arch Lending supports fewer currencies and has higher fees in several areas.

Meridian 2025 featured an innovative NFT activation that transformed the conference into an interactive art experience, with 24 global artists creating 80 unique works. Attendees collected proof-of-attendance NFTs via QR codes and tap-to-collect mechanics using Meridian Pay smart wallet, marking the first major real-world implementation of Stellar's SEP-50 NFT standard.

At Davos 2026, Arf, LuLu Financial Holdings, and the Stellar Development Foundation presented PayFi as a production payments layer. Moving beyond pilots, the framework integrates programmable liquidity, embedded compliance, and autonomous settlement directly into transaction execution. The panel demonstrated how this enables live cross-border payment flows without prefunding or manual orchestration on Stellar infrastructure.

Etherfuse has partnered with Shinhan Securities to expand tokenized sovereign debt in Korea and Asia, leveraging high-performance blockchains including Stellar. The collaboration aims to provide institutional access to onchain government bonds with preserved economic structures and regulatory alignment. This reflects growing interest in blockchain for enhancing efficiency in traditional capital markets.

Token Terminal's weekly Snapshot covers emerging DeFi vault curators, Paxos' growth to $6.7B in issued assets including PYUSD and USDG, Solana's diversifying stablecoin landscape, and Ethereum L1's record transactions at low fees. It highlights new listings like Fathom on XDC and tokenized assets on Stellar such as sgBENJI and gBENJI. Platform updates include Studio improvements and a new Nansen integration.

This article explores five zero-knowledge proof use cases for the Stellar ecosystem: zkTokens for private transactions, zkLogin for secure authentication, zkKYC for privacy-preserving compliance, zkVoting for governance, and zkVM for scalable computation via Risc Zero integration with Soroban.

Stellar's financial ecosystem expanded significantly in 2025, with stablecoin market cap growing 53% to $243.6M driven by PayPal's PYUSD launch, while RWA market cap surged 196% to $890.2M. U.S. Bank is testing custom stablecoin issuance on Stellar, and the Marshall Islands completed the world's first onchain universal basic income disbursement by a national government.

Stellar hackathons are driving innovation by fostering collaborative development of decentralized apps on the Stellar blockchain and Soroban smart contracts. Key initiatives like the Build Better Contest and partnerships with UNDP's SDG Blockchain Accelerator turn ideas into real-world impact projects. These events build a thriving developer community through learning, networking, and funding opportunities.

Drips closed Q4 2025 strong with regional expansion across Asia, launched end-to-end RetroPGF with Filecoin, and introduced new protocol features including ORCID and website funding support. The team also announced Drips Wave, recurring bounty cycles launching with the Stellar Development Foundation in January 2026.

Normal's 2025 recap highlights its evolution from a centralized product to a fully self-custodial, decentralized protocol built on Stellar. Key achievements include 30,000 lines of smart contract code for wallets, AMMs, DEX, synthetic assets, and on-chain indexes, a Halborn security audit backed by SDF, and a Stellar Community Fund grant. The team expanded with key hires like CTO Jay and frontend lead Niko, while hosting global community events.

Range recaps its 2025 achievements in building stablecoin payments infrastructure, highlighted by the launch of Faraday for real-time routing, screening, and compliance, and the Stablecoin Explorer for cross-chain observability. The company expanded support across ecosystems like Solana, Stellar, and others, while publishing in-depth research on stablecoin usage, including USDC on Stellar. Amid major hacks and regulatory shifts like MiCAR, Range positioned itself as a leader in proactive security and enforcement for maturing stablecoin rails.

Trustless Work reviews its 2025 achievements, including completion of the Draper University/Stellar Embark program, extensive hackathon participation across chains like Stellar and Solana, and shipping production-ready escrow infrastructure. The project highlights builder adoption, enterprise pilots in real estate tokenization and private credit, and Stellar's ecosystem growth with milestones like PYUSD launch. Looking to 2026, they aim to accelerate integrations, volume, and tokenized assets while preparing to raise capital.

Rise In's November 2025 monthly update highlights record-breaking HackStellar Istanbul with 52 projects, over 250 new projects from India events, and expansion into Vietnam. Top winning projects include Stellar x402 for HTTP micro-payments, Reset DeFi yield aggregator, and Sublayer subscription manager. Globally, over 300 projects and 1,300 builders are driving Stellar ecosystem growth.

GrantFox has received a Stellar Community Fund Build Award, marking a key milestone for open-source collaboration in the Stellar ecosystem. It steps in to fill the gap left by OnlyDust's exit, offering improved discovery, coordination, and trustless payouts via Trustless Work. The award enables GrantFox to scale as Stellar's open-source collaboration platform.