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Stellar (XLM)

What is Stellar?

Stellar is a public blockchain optimized for cross-border payments and low-cost asset transfer, launched in 2014 by Jed McCaleb (co-founder of Ripple) and Joyce Kim. The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is the nonprofit organization that maintains the protocol. XLM (lumens) is the network’s native currency, used for transaction fees and as a bridge asset for conversions between other currencies.

Stellar and Ripple (XRP) share some DNA — Jed McCaleb co-founded Ripple before departing to create Stellar with a different governance model and mission focus. Stellar targets financial inclusion in underbanked regions and has built substantial partnerships with payment providers (MoneyGram integration launched 2021 then paused then re-engaged), remittance operators in Africa, and stablecoin issuers.

Stellar’s technical approach prioritizes speed, cost, and simplicity over general-purpose smart-contract functionality. In 2024, Stellar launched Soroban, a WebAssembly-based smart contract platform that added Turing-complete functionality to the ledger while maintaining the core payments-first design.

How Stellar Works

Stellar uses the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), a federated Byzantine agreement system:

• Federated consensus: Each node selects a set of trusted “quorum slices” — nodes it will rely on for consensus. Global consensus emerges from the intersection of these slices. Fundamentally different from proof-of-work or proof-of-stake.
• No mining, no staking: XLM tokens are not earned through consensus participation. SDF and other organizations run validator nodes for network utility rather than rewards.
• Fast finality: Transactions confirm in 3-5 seconds with deterministic finality.
• Very low fees: Transaction fees are 0.00001 XLM (essentially fractions of a cent).
• Asset issuance: Users can issue arbitrary tokens on Stellar using built-in asset functionality. Stablecoins, local currency tokens, and custom assets all work natively.

Soroban (2024): Stellar’s smart contract platform, written in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly. Enables more complex financial logic while maintaining Stellar’s payments-focused design. Still smaller than Ethereum or Solana smart contract ecosystems.

Supply and Tokenomics

• Current supply (2026): ~30 billion XLM
• Max supply: 50 billion XLM
• No ongoing inflation: Stellar removed its 1% annual inflation mechanism in October 2019 via community vote
• SDF holdings: The Stellar Development Foundation holds a meaningful portion of total supply for ecosystem development, grants, and operational funding
• Burn history: In 2019, SDF burned approximately 55 billion XLM (more than half the original supply) as part of a supply reduction initiative

XLM’s tokenomics are relatively clean: no ongoing emissions, fixed long-term supply, supply-reduction history. The main overhang is SDF’s ongoing release of its holdings for ecosystem grants and partnerships, which creates gradual supply growth independent of new issuance.

Real-World Use Cases

Stellar has more concrete real-world payment adoption than most crypto networks:

MoneyGram integration: MoneyGram integrated Stellar for crypto-to-cash conversion in 2021, enabling USDC on Stellar to be cashed out at MoneyGram locations globally. The partnership has evolved through different product iterations.

Remittance corridors in Africa: Companies like Tempo, Flutterwave integrations, and various fintechs use Stellar for cross-border transfers in African markets where banking infrastructure is limited.

USDC on Stellar: Circle’s USDC is issued natively on Stellar, enabling dollar-denominated transfers with Stellar’s speed and fee profile. Significant usage in emerging markets.

CBDC pilots: Multiple central banks (Ukraine, some Pacific Island nations) have piloted CBDC frameworks on Stellar.

Franklin Templeton’s tokenized money market fund: Uses Stellar as one of its issuance chains alongside Polygon and others.

Soroban Smart Contracts

Launched 2024 after multi-year development, Soroban represents Stellar’s entry into smart contracts:

• Rust-based: Contracts written in Rust, compiled to WebAssembly
• Resource metering: Detailed metering of CPU, memory, I/O to prevent DoS attacks
• Existing asset integration: Smart contracts can directly interact with Stellar’s built-in asset functionality
• Smaller than Ethereum or Solana: Ecosystem is newer and still growing; limited DeFi activity compared to major smart-contract L1s

Risks and Considerations

• Competition from other payment-focused chains: Ripple (XRP), Solana, and stablecoin-specific chains compete for cross-border payment use cases
• SDF concentration: The Stellar Development Foundation’s supply holdings and centralized development role are criticized by some observers
• Smart contract ecosystem scale: Soroban is too new to challenge Ethereum or Solana; XLM’s value case rests primarily on payments rather than DeFi
• Adoption trajectory: Real-world partnerships have grown slowly; some announcements (MoneyGram) have paused or restructured
• No spot ETF: No US spot XLM ETF exists as of 2026. Regulatory priority is lower than BTC/ETH/SOL

How to Buy Stellar

XLM is widely listed on major exchanges:

• US exchanges: Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Binance US, Bitstamp, Robinhood
• International exchanges: Binance, Bybit, OKX, Crypto.com
• Hardware wallets: Ledger supports XLM natively; Trezor support via third-party integrations
• Stellar-native wallets: LOBSTR, Solar Wallet, StellarPort

Key Facts

• Symbol: XLM (lumens)
• Max supply: 50 billion (post-2019 burn)
• Current supply (2026): ~30 billion
• Consensus: Stellar Consensus Protocol (Federated Byzantine Agreement)
• Block time: 3-5 seconds
• Launch date: 2014
• Founder: Jed McCaleb (former Ripple co-founder)
• Organization: Stellar Development Foundation (nonprofit)

Learn More

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