Stellar Ecosystem
News

Trustless Work presents an escrow-as-a-service platform built on Stellar that enables freelance and gig platforms to offer Upwork-style escrow flows without custodial burden or high fees. The platform uses stablecoins and smart contracts to facilitate milestone-based payments between clients and workers at ~0.3% fees versus traditional platforms' 5-8%.

SCF #40 concluded 2025 with 24 awarded projects receiving $2.18M in XLM funding. The round received 85 submissions and introduced governance insights on voter participation, quorum adjustments, and upcoming SCF v7.0 improvements.

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.

BP Ventures' StellarMesh Anchor project has won a Stellar Community Fund #40 Build Award, recognizing its role in connecting global exchange liquidity to Stellar's onchain rails. The infrastructure enables instant, compliant funding for Stellar wallets via SEP-24/31 standards. This milestone validates the project's contribution to interoperability and real-world asset movement on Stellar.

Allbridge launches a multi-wave on-chain campaign to introduce users to the Stellar ecosystem through practical quests and rewards. The campaign features a $10,000 reward pool across five two-week waves, starting December 22, focusing on bridging assets and interacting with Stellar protocols. Supported by the Stellar Development Foundation, it emphasizes DeFi, asset issuance, and real-world adoption.

VIA and the Stellar Development Foundation announced a collaboration to distribute over $200,000 in USDC stablecoins to 325 mothers in Haiti through Hope for Haiti's poverty alleviation programs. The six-month initiative leverages Stellar's blockchain network and VIA's secure mobile technology to enable direct, transparent aid disbursement while reducing cash-related safety risks.

The Stellar Development Foundation announced its facilitation of the world's first onchain universal basic income program in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, disbursing USDM1 (a sovereign digital bond) through the Lomalo wallet powered by Crossmint on Stellar.

Token Terminal's weekly Snapshot analyzes Circle's expansion beyond USDC into transaction-based revenues via CCTP, yield-bearing assets with USYC, and EU markets through EURC on Stellar and other chains. It highlights new project listings like Starknet and Deliswap, stablecoin additions, and platform updates including Queries SQL access. The newsletter showcases data-driven crypto insights with charts and product improvements.

COCA's November 2025 monthly update highlights strong growth with 85% sustained active card user expansion, 45% increase in new card orders, and 22% rise in transaction volume. Key achievements include a Stellar Foundation feature spotlight, shortlisting for BeInCrypto Awards, launch on Aurora (NEAR), and vibrant community campaigns. Product updates enhanced transparency, multi-chain deposits, and global language support.

Faraday, Range's unified platform, streamlines stablecoin routing, risk management, compliance, and analytics compared to multi-vendor stacks like 0x, LI.FI, TRM Labs, and Dune. It offers a single API supporting chains including Stellar, reducing integration overhead and improving efficiency for fintechs like AcmePay. The article details advantages across routing, risk, data, and maintenance dimensions.

A detailed comparison of COCA and KAST crypto cards highlights COCA's advantages in self-custody, real stablecoin cashback, zero fees, multichain support including Stellar, and additional perks like APY and travel benefits. KAST offers custodial convenience and broader availability but relies on speculative points rewards and higher fees. COCA is positioned as the superior choice for most users seeking real value.

U.S. Bank is testing stablecoin issuance on Stellar, choosing the network for its compliance features including asset-freeze controls, trust lines, and ability to handle 1,000+ transactions per second. The pilot signals banks are moving toward tokenized settlement infrastructure.

U.S. Bank is testing a stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain in collaboration with the Stellar Development Foundation and PwC. The project leverages Stellar's unique ability to freeze assets and unwind transactions at the blockchain layer, positioning the bank among traditional financial institutions exploring stablecoin infrastructure.