Stellar Ecosystem
News

The Glo Foundation has selected Coala Pay as the first recipient of its 'Strengthen Humanitarian Aid' funding, backed by a $250,000 donation from the Stellar Development Foundation. Glo Dollars on the Stellar blockchain now automatically support Coala Pay's platform for efficient international aid delivery. Users can fund humanitarian efforts seamlessly without additional donations.

The Stellar Community Fund (SCF) Round 31 awarded $2,068,710 in XLM to 22 projects, including payment solutions, DeFi platforms, developer tools, and RWA tokenization engines. The round received 123 submissions, with 71 being first-time applicants, demonstrating strong ecosystem growth.

The Stellar Development Foundation and UN Development Programme announced a strategic partnership to deploy blockchain solutions for financial inclusion, sustainable development, and humanitarian aid across emerging economies.

Empowch discusses blockchain's role in rebuilding financial systems in crisis-affected regions like Syria and Ukraine, highlighting how Stellar-based solutions enable direct aid distribution and financial inclusion through self-custody wallets and stablecoins.

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.

Ghanaian fintech Seevcash integrated DeFindex's white-label DeFi yield infrastructure on Stellar in just one week, slashing development time from 12+ months and reducing code by 50%. Post-marketing, TVL spiked 433% to $13K with 24 active users earning yields on stablecoins. The SDK enabled gasless transactions via Stellar sponsorship, building trust in unbanked markets.

Anke Liu and Anna Whitson-Diaz from the Stellar Development Foundation discuss how blockchain technology bridges gaps in financial inclusion and empowers communities globally.

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.

A blog post exploring how programmable payments and blockchain technology could improve charitable aid distribution by reducing inefficiencies and human fallibility in philanthropy. The author argues that using Stellar's infrastructure for conditional, automated payments could enable more direct and traceable delivery of disaster relief and social programs.

This article explores how passkeys—a secure, user-friendly authentication method already adopted in Web2—are being integrated into Stellar's blockchain to improve user experience and drive adoption. Stellar gained a significant advantage by implementing native secp256r1 support in Protocol 21, enabling passkey functionality directly at the protocol level rather than through third-party solutions.

Shaheen, a UAE-based fintech app built on blockchain, launches to serve unbanked populations across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia with cross-border payments, multi-currency wallets, and financial inclusion tools. Parent organization Empowch expands globally with API solutions for NGOs and financial institutions.

This guide explains how Ghanaian users can withdraw stablecoins like USDC and USDT from Binance to Ghanaian Cedi via mobile money or bank accounts using Bingtellar. Bingtellar is a web3 payments platform that supports Stellar, Solana, and BEP20 networks for seamless conversions. It offers speed, convenience, security, and fair rates as key benefits.

Empowch positions its blockchain-based digital wallet as a solution for NGOs delivering aid to Syrian and Lebanese refugees in the MENA region. The self-custody platform enables instant cross-border payments and cash conversion, reducing reliance on costly intermediaries and traditional banking infrastructure.

zkCross Network announces Super Accounts on Stellar, powered by their Chain Abstraction Layer, enabling seamless 1-click cross-chain DeFi transactions without bridging or gas management. This integrates zkCrossDEX with Stellar's Soroban blockchain, supported by a Stellar Community Fund grant. The phased roadmap includes AMM DEX, staking, launchpad, and perpetuals trading.

Tala launched a non-custodial crypto wallet powered by Stellar, enabling financially underserved communities in Peru and beyond to securely manage digital assets with low fees and fast transactions.

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.

Rehoboth Finance releases a step-by-step onboarding guide for its Stellar-based wallet. The tutorial covers account creation, two-factor authentication, adding assets via fiat onramp or transfers, asset swaps, and earning real-time yield. The non-custodial wallet supports XLM, USDC, BTC, ETH, and wrapped versions.

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.

ClickPesa has launched the ClickPesa Debt Fund, a DeFi lending facility built on Stellar and powered by Soroban smart contracts, designed to provide financing to SMEs and women-owned businesses across Africa. The fund's SME I Pool uses Script3's Blend protocol and offers up to 12% annual interest with quarterly repayments, backed by ClickPesa Collateral Tokens (CPCT) pegged to real microfinance loan books.

Giveth, a blockchain-based donation platform, has integrated Stellar as its 11th supported blockchain. The integration enables donors and projects to transact with low fees, fast settlement times, and access GIVbacks rewards when donating XLM.

The Stellar Development Foundation published a contribution to OMFIF's Digital Assets 2024 Report titled 'The Power of Public Blockchains,' highlighting how public blockchains offer superior stability, security, and resilience compared to traditional financial infrastructure while enabling regulatory compliance and faster settlement.

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.