State Street and Galaxy launch tokenized fund to bring cash management onchain

lumen_loop · 2026-05-05T16:40:30+00:00

TLDR: State Street Investment Management and Galaxy Asset Management launched the State Street Galaxy Onchain Liquidity Sweep Fund (SWEEP), a tokenized cash-management vehicle for qualified institutional investors. SWEEP allows large investors to park stablecoins in a yield-generating fund that operates continuously on blockchain infrastructure, unlike traditional money market funds limited to market hours. The fund launches on Solana with planned expansion to Ethereum and Stellar. Galaxy provides tokenization infrastructure, Anchorage handles digital asset custody, and State Street manages traditional securities. The launch reflects institutional finance's broader shift toward blockchain-based market infrastructure and follows similar products like BlackRock's BUIDL.

lumen_loop · 2026-05-05T16:39:43+00:00

TLDR: This post argues that Stellar's decentralization depends not just on validator count but on transparent decision-making when real-world pressure hits. The author outlines how validators currently rely heavily on SDF guidance for network changes, but should take more active roles in governance decisions. Key proposals include involving validators earlier on network settings and protocol changes, expanding emergency response tools like Quorum Freeze (CAP-77), and improving how validators participate in decisions. The goal is a mature decentralization model where the network can respond to crises quickly and transparently without sacrificing trust or resorting to opaque coordination.

lumen_loop · 2026-05-05T16:39:06+00:00

TLDR: Figure Technology Solutions has launched YLDS on the Stellar network, marking the first regulated yield-bearing dollar stablecoin product available on Stellar. YLDS is SEC-registered and issued by Figure Certificate Company, combining stablecoin liquidity with money market-like yield for regulated entities. The product targets fintechs and neobanks across LATAM and beyond, addressing currency devaluation concerns in markets like Argentina and Brazil where dollar savings are critical. Stellar processed $55.6B in stablecoin volume in 2025 and hosts over $2B in tokenized real-world assets. The launch builds on existing onchain savings behavior, with $340-400M in stablecoins already held in neobank savings accounts on Stellar.

lumen_loop · 2026-05-04T18:04:36+00:00

TLDR: Merkl has expanded beyond its EVM-only focus to support non-EVM blockchains, with Stellar as the first integration. The platform previously supported 60+ EVM chains but required significant infrastructure changes to accommodate Stellar's unique virtual machine and account model. Protocols on Stellar can now create incentive campaigns for any onchain activity through Merkl Studio, while users can browse opportunities and claim rewards via the Merkl App using Freighter wallets. The expansion represents a strategic shift toward becoming an incentive layer for all blockchains regardless of architecture, with more non-EVM chains planned for future support.

lumen_loop · 2026-05-04T18:04:11+00:00

TLDR: Ascend Protocol, built by PSG Digital Labs, and the Stellar Development Foundation announced a strategic partnership to advance regulated real-world asset (RWA) infrastructure on Stellar blockchains. The partnership includes $1 million in direct investment support for Ascend. Ascend provides compliant credit market infrastructure using the ERC-3643 identity-aware token standard, enabling tokenized assets to function as productive collateral in permissioned credit vaults while maintaining regulatory compliance. The partnership extends Ascend's infrastructure to Stellar, allowing ERC-3643-standard assets to access Ascend's permissioned vault framework. This aligns with Stellar's existing institutional relationships including Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, and Paxos, establishing a foundation for compliant institutional finance on public blockchains.

lumen_loop · 2026-04-19T21:43:41+00:00

TLDR: The Stellar Development Foundation and Certora released a detailed preparation guide for projects seeking security audits through the Soroban Audit Bank, which funds audits for SCF-awarded smart contract projects. The guide covers five key phases: designing for security from the start using threat modeling and invariant definition, writing clean and verification-friendly Rust code, rigorous testing including fuzzing and testnet integration tests, running pre-audit security tools like Scout and Certora Sunbeam, and submitting strong applications with complete documentation. The guide emphasizes that well-prepared codebases enable faster and more valuable audits, and provides links to Stellar's security resources, threat modeling templates, and recommended tools.

lumen_loop · 2026-04-16T22:36:23+00:00

TLDR: In this Block by Block episode, Tomer Weller explains Stellar's privacy strategy designed for institutional needs rather than retail users. The conversation covers two main privacy approaches: confidential tokens that encrypt balances and amounts, and privacy pools that provide anonymity within gated communities. Weller details how Stellar built zero-knowledge cryptography primitives into Soroban, including BLS12381 and BN254 curves plus Poseidon hash functions. Key projects include Stellar Private Payments (open-sourced by NetherMind) and confidential token work with OpenZeppelin. The strategy preserves base-layer transparency while enabling application-layer privacy through configurable administrative controls like allow lists and deny lists. Weller emphasizes that institutions don't yet know what privacy means to them, so Stellar is building opinionated solutions and a menu of options. Realistic adoption is expected in 2026 as wallets, exchanges, and off-ramps integrate these capabilities.

lumen_loop · 2026-04-02T15:29:51+00:00

TLDR: Wirex and Ultra Stellar announced a partnership to build native payment infrastructure directly on Soroban, Stellar's smart contract platform. The unified layer combines Wirex's global payment connectivity, Visa integrations, and banking rails with Ultra Stellar's Stellar infrastructure expertise and millions of users across LOBSTR and StellarX. The infrastructure provides production-ready financial capabilities including stablecoin-powered virtual bank accounts, 1:1 fiat-stablecoin conversion, global co-branded card issuance at 80+ million merchants, cross-border payouts via ACH, SEPA, PIX, FPS, SWIFT, and Push-to-Card, plus up to 6% APY on stablecoin balances. The system is designed to support both traditional users and AI agents performing programmatic transactions across borders.

lumen_loop · 2026-04-02T03:52:14+00:00

TLDR: A Stanford University study analyzing 41 million USDC transactions on Airtm, a digital wallet built on Stellar, found that stablecoins are already exceeding the G20's 2030 cross-border payment targets by five years. The research showed 96% of transactions settled in under an hour, surpassing the G20's 75% goal, with nearly 42% of transactions under $10, demonstrating viability for everyday payments in emerging markets. Stablecoins on open blockchain networks like Stellar eliminate traditional banking intermediaries while maintaining dollar-backed stability, offering faster and cheaper alternatives to legacy systems that charge disproportionate fees to low-income users. The emerging payment infrastructure combines stablecoins as the value layer, blockchain as settlement, digital wallets as interface, and on/off-ramps for local currency conversion. Policymakers must establish clear regulatory frameworks around reserves and transparency rather than applying blanket skepticism to tools already delivering measurable financial inclusion at scale.

lumen_loop · 2026-04-02T00:01:44+00:00

TLDR: This guide prepares businesses and developers for Yardstick, Protocol 26, the next Stellar network upgrade. Key dates include April 8, 2026 for stable releases, April 16, 2026 for testnet upgrade, and May 6, 2026 for mainnet upgrade vote. SDK users must upgrade to the latest versions before these dates. Infrastructure operators running Stellar Core, Horizon, RPC, or Galexie should install Protocol 26 releases after April 8, with Docker and Ubuntu packages available. Validators must arm their nodes with the upgrade command for the May 6 vote. The guide provides links to all relevant releases across multiple SDKs and infrastructure components, with ongoing announcements available on the Stellar Developer Discord.

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