Welcome to the Stellar Overview. In this edition, we look at U.S. Bank’s launch of its USBC stablecoin on Stellar alongside its first cross-border payment transaction; the launch of MoneyGram’s Visa card; and Stellar’s growing RWA and stablecoin stack.
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By the numbers
Total value locked: $231.2M (-1.4%)
Stablecoin market cap: $417.76M (+16.7%)
Stablecoin 30d transfer volume: $9.06B (+1.7%)
RWA distributed value: $3.27B (+0.6%)
RWA holders: 20,538 (+4.5%)
Lifetime network uptime: 99.99%
The percentages and metrics are calculated from its change over a 14-day time frame, unless noted otherwise.
A Big Move We’re Watching: U.S. Bank settles its first cross-border payment on Stellar
U.S. Bank has completed its first pilot transaction on the Stellar network using USBDC, the bank's USD-backed stablecoin. The bank sent a cross-border payment between its entities in North America and Europe.
The transaction ran over U.S. Bank's Digital Asset Platform, linked to the bank's internal systems for compliance, operations, risk, and finance.
The pilot covered the full lifecycle—minting, payment, redemption, freezing, and clawback—via controls built into Stellar natively at the protocol level.
While banks have run blockchain pilots, most use private networks under their control. This pilot involved USBDC being transferred over a public network with a validator set U.S. Bank doesn't control, which acts as a signal of trust in public blockchains like Stellar.
Exploring Stellar’s institutional side
Nuvanté, a digital money clearing infrastructure company, built a stablecoin clearing prototype on Stellar and tested it in the Bank of England's Synchronisation Lab in August.
The prototype covered issuance, redemption and exchange of fiat-backed stablecoins, and tested settlement flows against the Bank of England's RT2 real-time gross settlement environment. The tests included stablecoin-to-stablecoin and stablecoin-to-fiat flows.
MoneyGram launched the MoneyGram Card, a Visa debit card that customers can use to spend money through the MoneyGram app anywhere Visa is accepted. The card launched in Colombia on September 10 and is issued by Rain.
Transactions are settled on Stellar and Crossmint handles wallet custody.
The Spiko Amundi Overnight Swap Fund on Stellar, which holds a portfolio of assets on behalf of a counterparty bank (G-SIBs rated and A- above) and earns an agreed rate above risk-free benchmarks through total return swaps, surpassed $1 billion on September 9, the first tokenized asset on the network to cross that mark.
The fund makes up about 30% of Stellar's total RWA value, more than double the next-largest fund.
Tether’s USDT0 was deployed on Stellar, adding $2.6M worth of bridged stablecoin supply to the network.
Zebec integrated MoneyGram Ramps into its Stellar payroll platform, giving workers a way to convert their stablecoin wages into cash.
MoneyGram is the first fiat off-ramp built into Zebec, which lets companies stream stablecoin payments to employees and contractors as payroll accrues.
Diving into Stellar’s ecosystem
Denelle Dixon, CEO and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation, spoke on CNBC about the Clarity Act, and why privacy is important for onboarding fintechs and banks.
Zebec launched an enterprise payroll platform on Stellar that lets companies and contractors send stablecoins directly to workers’ wallets.
The platform lets employees be paid immediately instead of on a scheduled pay cycle, and lets them spend their stablecoins using a Mastercard debit card.
The company also plans to build fiat on-ramps, off-ramp, and remittance integrations.
Tether integrated USDT0, the omnichain version of Tether’s USDT stablecoin. This allows users to transfer the asset between supported chains like Ethereum, Solana, and Tron, using a shared liquidity pool for DeFi needs such as collateral, lending, or yield.
Lock in to the ecosystem
Check out the latest job postings on the Stellar Development Foundation.
Until next time!
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This information is for entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research.