Stellar (XLM)

💵 USDT Dominates Payments, USDC Leads DeFi - And Why It Matters for $XLM The stablecoin market is no longer a winner-takes-all race. New data from Dune shows that USDT and USDC are evolving into two distinct pillars of the crypto economy. 📊 In the first half of 2026: 🔹 USDT processed around $95 billion in identified commerce payments, compared to $14 billion for USDC. 🔹 It also accounted for 92% of all B2B stablecoin payment volume, cementing its role as the leading asset for global payments and remittances. Meanwhile, USDC continues to dominate DeFi. ⚡️ On Base, USDC generated approximately $2.6 trillion in transfer volume during June, with another $1.6 trillion on Ethereum, highlighting its importance for on-chain trading and liquidity. For the Stellar $XLM ecosystem, this trend is especially important. As stablecoins become increasingly specialized, demand is growing for blockchain networks built for fast, low-cost, cross-border payments. Stellar's infrastructure is designed precisely for that use case, making $XLM a key part of an ecosystem where stablecoins can move efficiently at scale. Together, USDT and USDC now account for roughly 83% of the $315 billion stablecoin market, but their roles are becoming increasingly clear: 💸 USDT → Global Payments & Remittances 🏦 USDC → DeFi & Trading Infrastructure 🌍 $XLM → Fast, low-cost settlement infrastructure powering stablecoin transfers As stablecoin adoption accelerates worldwide, payment-focused networks like Stellar are well positioned to benefit from the next wave of digital finance. 🚀 🔠 Watch Video: https://t.co/twZfOnVmMl #Stellar #XLM #Crypto #Blockchain #DeFi

All the money. Onchain. https://t.co/FNdkqgdNOF

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and @StellarOrg have expanded their partnership, moving from successful blockchain payment pilots to building a standing capability that UNDP country offices can use at scale. The pilots already demonstrated: • Distribution costs reduced from ~10% to ~2% • Every transaction recorded on chain • Near-instant settlement • 100% success even in low connectivity environments This isn't another proof of concept. It's the transition from "does this technology work?" to "how do we deploy it globally?"

Zipper (Protocol 27) will make Stellar smart-account features like social recovery, modular multisig and delegated signing first-class protocol tools, not fragile workarounds. Smaller transactions, simpler simulation, and the groundwork for contract-based auth on classic accounts later.

If you want to know what Zipper (Protocol 27) means for the network, this thread breaks it down👇 Reminder: the Mainnet vote for Zipper is Wednesday, July 8th at 17:00 UTC.