PayPal USD

DeFi

Ultra

Blend

Stellar

<a href="https://bsc.news/post/stellar-xlm-cross-border-payments" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Stellar's</a> DeFi total value locked has crossed $200 million for the first time, hitting roughly $204.19 million on April 24, according to DefiLlama. The figure marks a new all-time high for the network and beats the previous peak of about $196.6 million set in January 2026.
The breakout comes as many&nbsp;<a href="https://bsc.news/post/layer-1-blockchains-ultimate-guide" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Layer 1</a> and Layer 2 chains have struggled to hold their TVL through 2026. Stellar has moved the other way, posting steady growth into Q2. The question is what's behind the move.
<h3 id="span-span-strong-what-s-pushing-stellar-s-tvl-higher-strong-span-span">What's pushing Stellar's TVL higher?</h3>
Real-world assets are doing most of the work. Stellar has spent the last 18 months positioning itself as a settlement layer for tokenized treasuries, real estate, and other off-chain instruments. That bet is paying off in measurable on-chain liquidity.
Worth noting upfront: DefiLlama's $204 million chain TVL tracks native&nbsp;<a href="https://bsc.news/post/decentralized-finance-defi-comprehensive-guide" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">DeFi</a> activity, while Stellar's broader tokenized asset footprint sits much higher. RWA․xyz pegs the distributed asset value on the network at around $1.64 billion. The two figures measure different things, but the RWA side is what feeds DeFi composability.
Spiko, which issues euro and dollar treasury bill tokens, leads the network with $531.92 million in distributed asset value. Ondo Finance's tokenized yield products account for another $123.12 million, and WisdomTree adds $24.01 million. Together, these three issuers represent the bulk of Stellar's institutional RWA footprint.
A Messari Q1 2026 report puts the network's RWA market cap excluding&nbsp;<a href="https://bsc.news/post/understanding-stablecoins-how-they-work-guide" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">stablecoins</a> at $1.52 billion by the end of Q1, with the figure crossing $2 billion on April 11. Year-over-year TVL growth through 2025 came in at 284 percent, and Q1 2026 carried that momentum forward.
<h3 id="span-span-strong-which-protocols-are-leading-the-defi-side-strong-span-span">Which protocols are leading the DeFi side?</h3>
Native DeFi has caught up to the institutional pipeline. Blend, the network's main lending protocol, sits at $110.25 million in TVL after growing 25.9 percent quarter-over-quarter through Q1 2026. Yields on Blend have stayed elevated, which has kept deposits sticky.
Decentralized exchanges are also picking up volume:
<ul>
 <li>Aquarius Stellar TVL: $51.69 million, up 30 percent over the last month</li>
 <li>Stellar DEX: $25.86 million, up 64.54 percent over the last month</li>
 <li>Network-wide stablecoin market cap: $404.13 million, with USDC holding roughly 66 percent dominance</li>
</ul>
Seven-day DEX volume across the network is up 26.24 percent, suggesting the liquidity isn't sitting idle.
<h3 id="span-span-strong-how-does-soroban-fit-into-the-picture-strong-span-span">How does Soroban fit into the picture?</h3>
Soroban, Stellar's smart contract platform that went live in 2024, is the connective tissue. Before Soroban, Stellar could move tokenized assets but couldn't host the lending markets, AMMs, and collateralization layers that turn TVL into a flywheel. That changed once the platform shipped.
The clearest example arrived on April 1, when Templar launched lending and borrowing markets for six freely transferable RWAs, including Centrifuge and Etherfuse assets. The launch lets institutional tokens function as collateral inside Stellar DeFi, which is the kind of composability that has driven TVL on competing chains for years.
<h3 id="span-span-strong-what-recent-announcements-have-fed-the-rally-strong-span-span">What recent announcements have fed the rally?</h3>
Key moves from the past six months:
<ul>
 <li>Mercado Bitcoin announced a $200 million RWA issuance program on Stellar in September 2025, covering fixed income and equity products</li>
 <li>RedSwan brought $100 million in tokenized real estate the same month</li>
 <li>Ondo Finance launched USDY on Stellar, while Centrifuge introduced its deRWA product line with a $20 million initial allocation</li>
 <li>Wirex and Ultra Stellar rolled out a Soroban-based payment layer on April 2, aimed at millions of retail users</li>
 <li>PayPal USD went live on the network in September 2025, adding another major stablecoin to the stack</li>
</ul>
Franklin Templeton and WisdomTree integrations from earlier in 2025 continue to deepen as well.
<h3 id="span-span-strong-what-does-sdf-want-next-strong-span-span">What does SDF want next?</h3>
<a href="https://x.com/StellarOrg" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">@StellarOrg</a> and the Stellar Development Foundation have been explicit about the 2026 plan. The foundation is targeting $1 billion in growth for network asset value, with a focus on RWAs, payments, and financial applications. It also plans to sign 15 new enterprise partners and deploy at least 5 of them during the year.
Messari forecasts continued TVL growth into Q2 2026, citing sustained yields on Blend and the RWA pipeline. One quiet but important detail: TVL has climbed even as $XLM's spot price has faced pressure, which suggests the activity is being driven by real settlement demand rather than reflexive token speculation.
Sources:
<ul>
 <li><a href="https://defillama.com/chain/stellar" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">DefiLlama</a> live Stellar chain TVL, protocol rankings, and DEX volume data</li>
 <li><a href="https://messari.io/report/state-of-stellar-q1-2026" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Messari</a> State of Stellar Q1 2026 report covering RWA market cap, Blend lending growth, and Q2 outlook</li>
 <li><a href="https://stellar.org/foundation/strategy" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Stellar Development Foundation</a> SDF 2026 strategy page with the $1 billion network asset value target and enterprise deployment goals</li>
 <li><a href="https://app.rwa.xyz/networks/stellar" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">RWA.xyz</a> network-wide tokenized asset distribution data for Stellar</li>
 <li><a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/wirex-ultra-stellar-launch-native-130000592.html" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Yahoo Finance</a> Wirex and Ultra Stellar native Soroban payment infrastructure launch, April 2</li>
</ul>

Stellar Sees TVL Boom to $200 Million

Table of Contents

BSCN

Other articles published on Apr 28, 2026

Join our free newsletter for daily crypto updates!