Stellar Pushes Utility-Driven Blockchain for Financial Institutions
Stellar’s Meridian 2026 conference opened in Lisbon, focusing on how banks, asset managers, and payments companies use the Stellar public blockchain. The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) emphasized that the network’s next phase should be driven by utility, with a focus on increasing payments volume and tokenized assets used as collateral and in lending. Executives consistently advised institutions to identify buyers before building products and to choose networks that align with regulatory requirements.
SDF’s president and chief growth officer, José Fernández da Ponte, outlined this year’s priorities, including more payments and stablecoin volume, and more tokenized assets put to work as collateral for lending, margin, and repos. He noted that a tokenized money market fund sitting in a wallet is “good but it’s not great.” Fernández da Ponte also highlighted the importance of regulatory compliance, stating, “If you work in financial services, you need to love your regulator.”
Utility Era
SDF is calling the network’s next phase a “utility era.” The foundation is reconsidering Stellar’s tokenomics and exploring the possibility of a rewards mechanism funded from the network’s existing fee pool to improve utility. Tomer Weller, SDF’s Chief Product Officer, emphasized the need for a focus on use and utility, suggesting that tokenomics adjustments could enhance network adoption.
SDF is testing a faster way to run Stellar through Project Thruput, which allows multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously, enabling the network to handle more payments by adding computers. The preview is running on FutureNet, Stellar’s testing network, and SDF reported that one validator reached 7.02 million payments per second on eight machines. This figure, while impressive, represents a single component of the system and has not yet been independently verified.
Institutional Adoption
Institutions are building on the Stellar network, with recent announcements lending support to SDF’s argument. Securitize added Stellar to its supported chains, joining Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche. CEO Carlos Domingo noted that Stellar hosts the fourth-largest tokenized real-world asset ecosystem, though no specific asset or launch partner has been announced. Janus Henderson and Centrifuge announced JQQQ on Oct 27, a Nasdaq-100 tracking fund licensed by Nasdaq for non-U.S. professional investors, with a minimum investment of about $100,000 and Stellar as its only chain at launch. Subscriptions are not yet open.
Archax announced €GOVY, a euro version of its perpetual tokenized T-bill product, and joined Pontoro on a pool pairing money market assets with private-fund interests. Spiko, a French fintech, manages $3 billion in tokenized cash funds on Stellar, primarily in overnight money market funds. CEO Paul-Adrien Hyppolite noted that about 90% of assets belong to companies, nonprofits, VC funds, and public institutions, with holder counts publicly visible on-chain.
U.S. Bank issued USBDC, a dollar-backed token on Stellar, using it to transfer value between its North American and European entities in September. These developments show the growing institutional interest in Stellar.
Thursday’s schedule includes key sessions addressing open questions. The 5:10 PM closing session promises a special announcement.
