Points of Focus

• Stellar witnessed strong institutional adoption in 2025 via stablecoins, compliance features, and network reliability.
• Tokenized RWAs on Stellar surged 196% as treasuries and funds drove rapid asset growth.
• DeFi on Stellar scaled rapidly, offering higher yields and cross-chain RWA utility.

Infrastructure reliability trumps narrative speculation in institutional blockchain adoption. Stellar’s 2025 performance validates this thesis through measurable expansion in stablecoins, tokenized treasuries, and cross-chain DeFi protocols delivering actual yields.

U.S. Bank began testing custom stablecoin issuance on Stellar (XLM) in November 2025, selecting the network specifically for its built-in clawback feature, enabling asset reclamation to satisfy regulatory customer protection requirements, according to Messari analysis published January 13, 2026. Mike Villano, the Minneapolis institution’s senior vice president and head of digital asset products, cited Stellar’s 99.99% uptime over a decade, fractional-cent settlement costs, and protocol-level asset controls as meeting bank-grade requirements.

Financial Ecosystem Update for @stellarorg

• RWA market cap ⬆️ 196% YoY to $890M+
• Stablecoin market cap ⬆️ 53% YoY to $243M+
• U.S. Bank testing custom issuance of its own stablecoin on Stellar
• DeFi TVL ⬆️ 284% YoY to $172M+
• First onchain universal basic income… https://t.co/9ebi7QIgnS pic.twitter.com/JyQa9Zd3uJ

— Messari (@MessariCrypto) January 13, 2026

Stablecoin market cap on Stellar expanded 53% year-over-year (YoY) to $243.6 million, driven by PayPal’s PYUSD’s September 2025 deployment and USDC’s 44.5% growth to $223.1 million. Thereafter, Visa announced support for USDC, EURC, PYUSD, and USDGLO on Stellar in October 2025, followed by Wirex enabling direct on-chain card settlements via EURC and USDC in November 2025, eliminating intermediary banks through self-custody wallet integrations.

Tokenized treasuries drive 196% asset growth

Real-world asset (RWA) market cap on Stellar surged 196% in 2025 from $301.1 million to $890.2 million, Messari reported. Franklin Templeton’s BENJI, whose each token represents one share of the firm’s on-chain U.S. Government Money Fund, grew 101.9% from $282.0 million to $569.3 million, comprising the majority of the expansion.

19 freshly issued RWAs contributed the remaining growth. Spiko integrated Stellar in November 2025, closing the year with $130.6 million in the EU T-Bills Money Market Fund and $28.7 million in the US T-Bills Money Market Fund. 

🙌 Thrilled to announce that we’re adding support for @StellarOrg!

Spiko fund shares can now be natively minted, transferred, and used on the Stellar network. pic.twitter.com/T7JvM8IusQ

— Spiko (@Spiko_finance) November 20, 2025

RedSwan tokenized $100 million in commercial real estate in September 2025, including Manhattan’s Hotel on Rivington, Chicago multifamily properties, and Texas holdings. Etherfuse introduced “stablebonds,” tokenized funds of short-term government treasuries from Mexico, the European Union, Brazil, and the United States, enabling institutional-grade foreign exchange at approximately 4 basis points.

The Marshall Islands completed the world’s first on-chain universal basic income (UBI) disbursement in December 2025 through its ENRA program, distributing Treasury-backed USDM1 bonds via the Lomalo app on Stellar to replace quarterly physical cash deliveries across dispersed Pacific atolls, the Stellar Development Foundation announced.

The world's first onchain disbursement of universal basic income, built on Stellar.

This is what real adoption and impact look like.https://t.co/GlisGzmqmG

— Stellar (@StellarOrg) December 16, 2025

Cross-chain protocols expand DeFi yields

Total value locked in Stellar DeFi increased 284% in 2025 from $44.9 million to over $172.5 million, with Blend, an overcollateralized lending protocol, growing 7.8 times to $79.9 million, Messari data shows. USDC lending yields on Blend ranged between 12% to 18% in Q4 2025, versus 2% to 7% on well-known protocols like Sparklend and Aave V3. Decentralized exchange volume averaged $1.5 million daily in December 2025.

Templar Protocol launched on Stellar in November 2025, enabling XLM deposits for USDC borrowing across multiple networks via NEAR’s multi-party computation infrastructure. Planned integrations include Franklin Templeton’s BENJI, PayPal’s PYUSD, and Centrifuge’s transferable RWAs, creating nested strategies where tokenized assets simultaneously generate yields while serving as loan collaterals.

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Templar, the first Cypher Lending Protocol, is launching on @StellarOrg to unlock multichain XLM & RWA lending.

Stellar users can now deposit XLM to borrow USDC on Stellar! pic.twitter.com/o85gwbrGjh

— Templar Protocol 🏛️ (@TemplarProtocol) November 5, 2025

Stellar joined Chainlink’s Scale Program in October 2025, integrating Data Feeds, Data Streams, and the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol to expand RWA support in DeFi. Stellar’s Protocol 25 upgrade, scheduled for January 22, 2026, introduced zero-knowledge primitives for configurable privacy in compliance-focused applications, positioning the network for sustained expansion in tokenized finance, where assets interact seamlessly to drive efficiency across borders and sectors.