DeFi

Stellar

<p>Stellar's native token <a href="https://x.com/search?q=%24XLM&amp;src=cashtag_click" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">$XLM</a> posted a solid seven-day run, gaining 13% to trade at $0.2167 as of September 25. Trading volume over the prior 24 hours jumped 82% to $528.9 million, while the network's market cap stood at $7.57 billion, pointing to renewed interest in the payments-focused blockchain.</p>
<h2 id="defi-activity-picks-up-across-the-network">DeFi Activity Picks Up Across the Network</h2>
<p>On-chain activity on the <a href="https://x.com/StellarOrg" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">@StellarOrg</a> network strengthened in parallel with the price move. DeFi total value locked (TVL) rose 5.8% in 24 hours to $260.39 million, according to DeFiLlama data. Weekly decentralised exchange (DEX) volume climbed 86%, and stablecoins held on the chain grew 4.6% to $938.38 million, reflecting a broader uptick in user activity and liquidity deployment.</p>
<p>The numbers build on a longer growth trend for Stellar DeFi. Stellar posted 284% year-over-year TVL growth through 2025 and carried that momentum into Q1 and Q2 2026. Blend, the network's main lending protocol, reached $110.25 million in TVL after growing 25.9% quarter-over-quarter through Q1 2026.</p>
<h2 id="institutional-adoption-adding-structural-support">Institutional Adoption Adding Structural Support</h2>
<p>Beyond the headline numbers, Stellar continues to attract institutional interest. Payments platform BVNK has integrated Stellar, opening the network to businesses across more than 130 markets for cross-border stablecoin payments. On the protocol side, the "Adapter" upgrade (Protocol 28) went live on mainnet on September 17, 2026, introducing atomic contract-fleet upgrades and faster consensus under load, aimed at supporting larger financial applications.</p>
<p>Cross-border payments remain Stellar's primary use case, with stablecoin-related volume exceeding $5.5 billion in Q1 2026, a 72% year-over-year increase. That structural demand, combined with growing on-chain liquidity, helps explain why this week's price and volume moves carried more weight than a typical short-term spike.</p>
<p><b>Sources:</b><br><a href="https://defillama.com/chain/stellar" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">DeFiLlama: Stellar Chain Overview</a><br><a href="https://cryptonews.net/news/altcoins/32925950/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">CryptoNews: Stellar TVL Surged to Nearly $200M</a><br><a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/cmc-ai/stellar/latest-updates/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">CoinMarketCap: Latest Stellar News and Updates</a></p>

A strong week for Stellar

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