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Stellar

XLM · Field entry
PaymentsISO 20022Payments & moneySmart contractsReal-world assets

An open payments network for moving money and tokenized assets across borders

$0.22444.35%Snapshot · October 4, 2026 · updates live
Market cap
$7.86B
24h volume
$165.49M
Rank
#20
Circulating
35.06B XLM
Max supply
No fixed cap
All-time high
$0.8756 January 2, 2018

XLM price chart

7-day snapshot. Chart data from CoinGecko.

What is Stellar?

Stellar is a public blockchain built for payments and issuing digital versions of money and other assets. Its native token, lumens (XLM), pays network fees and covers small minimum balances, while most real-world activity involves stablecoins and tokenized funds moving across the network.

Utility Lens

What Stellar actually does

Lets businesses issue and move digital dollars, local currencies and tokenized assets cheaply, connecting to bank accounts and cash through local partners.

Real-world usage
growingStellar carries real stablecoin, remittance and tokenized-fund activity, and institutional interest has risen, though volumes are modest next to the largest chains.
Token necessity
integralXLM pays fees and account minimums, but businesses can sponsor those costs so end users moving stablecoins may never hold XLM.
Decentralization
moderateValidators choose whom to trust in a federated model, but a relatively small group of organizations, including the Stellar Development Foundation, carries much of the weight.
Track record
longRunning since 2014, with no hack of the core protocol; it has had brief network stalls but no lasting loss of funds at the protocol level.

How we rate

What it’s used for

Remittance and wallet companies use Stellar to send stablecoins such as USDC between countries and cash them out through local partners called anchors. Asset managers have issued tokenized fund shares on Stellar, and DTCC announced in May 2026 that its tokenization service will connect to the network. Since 2024 developers can also build smart contracts with Soroban.

Role of the XLM token:

gaspayments

Evidence of real use

  • DTCC and the Stellar Development Foundation announced in May 2026 plans to make DTC-tokenized assets available on Stellar, expected in the first half of 2027. Source
  • Anchors connect Stellar to existing rails by accepting fiat deposits and issuing matching tokens, and redeeming them on withdrawal. Source
  • Protocol 23 ('Whisk'), approved by validators in September 2025, added parallel transaction processing and lowered costs. Source

ISO 20022: claim vs. reality

What’s documented
We found no ISO 20022 standards-body membership for the Stellar Development Foundation; it does not appear on the Registration Management Group roster. Stellar's documented link is indirect: some payment companies building on Stellar describe ISO 20022-based messaging in their own systems, and an SDF case study on a Ukrainian payment network built on Stellar describes an ISO 20022-based compliance framework.
What you’ll hear online
Stellar (XLM) is one of the official 'ISO 20022 coins' that banks are required to use.
Reality check
ISO 20022 is a bank messaging standard; it does not certify or endorse any cryptocurrency, and no official list of compliant coins exists. Any blockchain project can map payment data to ISO 20022 messages in its software. Stellar's real institutional ties, such as tokenized funds and the DTCC plan, stand on their own and are not ISO 20022 endorsements.

ISO 20022, explained

How Stellar works

Stellar uses the Stellar Consensus Protocol instead of mining. Each validator picks a set of other validators it trusts, and these overlapping groups agree on new ledgers every five seconds or so. Fees are a tiny fraction of a cent. The design favors fast, final settlement over open, anyone-can-join block production, and it relies on well-known organizations running reliable validators.

Most of the value on Stellar is not XLM but issued assets. A regulated company, such as a stablecoin issuer or a money transmitter, creates a token on Stellar that represents money it holds elsewhere. Anchors let people deposit and withdraw local currency, and Stellar's built-in exchange can convert between assets during a payment. Because businesses can sponsor fees and reserves, a user may move digital dollars without ever buying XLM.

Since 2024, Soroban smart contracts let developers build lending, payments logic and tokenization tools directly on Stellar. The Stellar Development Foundation, a nonprofit, funds development and holds a large XLM reserve for ecosystem grants. XLM's role is mostly practical: covering fees, meeting minimum balances and occasionally acting as a bridge when two issued assets are traded. Institutional activity such as tokenized fund shares and DTCC's planned connection involves those assets rather than XLM itself.

Key moments

  1. 2014Stellar launches, co-founded by Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim, with the nonprofit Stellar Development Foundation.
  2. 2019The network ends automatic inflation and the foundation burns roughly half of all XLM, leaving about 50 billion.
  3. 2024Soroban smart contracts go live on mainnet.
  4. 2025Protocol 23 ('Whisk') upgrade adds parallel processing.
  5. 2026DTCC announces plans to connect its tokenization service to Stellar.

Supply

There are about 50 billion XLM, and the protocol no longer creates new lumens after inflation was switched off in 2019. Small fees are paid with every transaction. The Stellar Development Foundation still holds a significant share of supply, which it distributes over time for grants and ecosystem programs.

Risks to understand

  • Most activity uses stablecoins and other issued assets, so growth in Stellar's network does not necessarily translate into demand for XLM.
  • The Stellar Development Foundation's large XLM holdings could add selling pressure as they are distributed.
  • Issued assets depend on the issuer: a token is only as good as the company and reserves behind it.
  • Competition from other payment-focused chains and bank-run tokenized deposit networks is intense.

Stellar FAQ

What is XLM used for?

XLM pays transaction fees and covers the small minimum balance each account must hold. It can also be traded or used as a bridge between assets on Stellar's built-in exchange.

What is a Stellar anchor?

An anchor is a company that connects Stellar to traditional money, taking deposits in a local currency and issuing a matching token, then paying out when you redeem it.

Is Stellar related to XRP?

Both were co-founded by Jed McCaleb and both focus on payments, but they are separate networks with different consensus designs, organizations and tokens.

Sources

  1. Learn About Anchors — Stellar Developer Docs
  2. DTC's Tokenization Service to Connect with Stellar Public Blockchain — DTCC
  3. Introducing Whisk, Stellar Protocol 23 — Stellar Development Foundation
  4. Ukraine's Instant Transparent Payment Network (case study) — Stellar Development Foundation
  5. Registration Management Group member list — ISO 20022 Registration Authority
  6. ISO 20022: Implementation (end of CBPR+ coexistence) — Swift

Last reviewed October 4, 2026 by The Crypto Guide editorial team. Utility Lens ratings are editorial judgments, not investment advice. Market data from CoinGecko. Spot an error? Request a correction.