Stellar is an open-source blockchain built for fast, low-cost payments, and lumens (XLM) are its native asset. Transactions settle in about five seconds for a tiny fraction of a cent. It is used for remittances, stablecoins and tokenized assets, and is supported by the nonprofit Stellar Development Foundation.
What is XLM used for?
XLM pays transaction fees on Stellar, covers the small minimum balance every account must hold, which helps prevent spam, and can act as a bridge currency when two assets have no direct trading pair.
Stellar was founded in 2014 by Jed McCaleb, who earlier co-founded Ripple, and Joyce Kim. The nonprofit Stellar Development Foundation supports the network's development and growth.
Is Stellar the same as XRP?
No. They share a co-founder, but they are separate networks with different tokens and organizations. XRP is closely tied to Ripple, a company focused on bank and enterprise payments, while Stellar is supported by a nonprofit foundation and focuses on open access and payments for individuals and businesses.
How many XLM are there?
All XLM was created at launch, and no new lumens can be created. Stellar ended its 1% annual inflation in 2019, and the Stellar Development Foundation burned about 55 billion XLM that year, leaving a total supply of about 50 billion. The live circulating supply is shown in the market data on this page.
Does Stellar support smart contracts?
Yes. Stellar's smart contract platform, Soroban, went live in February 2024. Contracts are written mainly in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly, so Stellar is not compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine. The Protocol 23 upgrade in September 2025 added parallel processing of contract transactions.
How does Stellar help with cross-border payments?
Regulated partners called anchors let people turn local currency into tokens on Stellar and back again. Money can then move across borders in seconds, and Stellar's built-in exchange can convert one currency to another on the way. MoneyGram uses Stellar this way to let people move between cash and a digital dollar stablecoin.
Can Stellar be used to issue digital assets?
Yes. Any account can issue a token on Stellar. Stablecoins such as USDC and PayPal's PYUSD, euro stablecoins and tokenized fund shares from asset managers such as Franklin Templeton are all issued on the network.
How do I store XLM?
XLM can be held in any self-custody wallet that supports the Stellar network, or on an exchange. A new Stellar account needs a small amount of XLM as its minimum balance, and many exchanges require a memo when you deposit XLM, so check the deposit instructions before sending.
Is Stellar a good investment?
Whether XLM suits you depends on your goals and risk tolerance, and this page is not financial advice. Stellar has real payment and stablecoin use, but XLM's price has been volatile, the foundation still holds a large share of the supply, and the network competes with many other payment chains. Only invest what you can afford to lose, and speak to a licensed financial adviser before making investment decisions.
What is Stellar Lumens (XLM)?
Stellar is a decentralized, open-source blockchain network designed to make moving money fast, affordable and accessible to everyone. Its native asset, the lumen (XLM), pays network fees and helps keep the network efficient, and it can act as a bridge between currencies in cross-border payments. Unlike general-purpose blockchains such as Ethereum, Stellar was built with a focused mission: to improve the way money moves across borders and to widen access to financial services for people and businesses often left out of the global economy.
Since its launch in 2014, Stellar has become a key piece of payments infrastructure. Supported by the nonprofit Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), the network keeps evolving with technical upgrades, real-world asset tokenization and partnerships with financial institutions. Today it is used not only as a low-cost remittance network but also as a platform for stablecoins, central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilots and institutional decentralized finance (DeFi).
Key takeaways
Payments first: Stellar is a decentralized blockchain built for payments, supported by a nonprofit foundation.
XLM's job: the lumen pays fees, covers the small minimum balance every account needs, and can bridge between currencies.
Anchors: regulated partners connect Stellar to bank accounts and cash, and issue stablecoins and tokenized assets on the network.
Smart contracts: Soroban, Stellar's smart contract platform since 2024, and the Protocol 23 upgrade of 2025 are expanding its role in DeFi.
Adoption: MoneyGram, PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin, Circle's USDC and asset managers such as Franklin Templeton use the network.
Challenges: reliance on anchors, strong competition, and the need for more developer activity.
Origins and development
Stellar was co-founded in July 2014 by Jed McCaleb, who previously helped create , and Joyce Kim, an attorney and entrepreneur. The Stellar Development Foundation was set up as a nonprofit to oversee the growth of the network. This structure sets Stellar apart from profit-driven blockchain projects and puts open participation and financial inclusion at the center.
Early versions of the protocol resembled Ripple's consensus model, but in 2015 the project introduced the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), which gave it its own technical foundation. SCP settles transactions quickly and validates them without mining, which makes Stellar an energy-efficient network for high-volume payments.
How Stellar works
Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP)
Instead of proof of work or proof of stake, Stellar uses SCP, a federated Byzantine agreement system. Each validator chooses a set of other validators it trusts, called a quorum slice, and the network reaches agreement when these overlapping slices agree. Transactions settle in about five seconds, without the energy use of mining.
Anchors and tokenized assets
Anchors are regulated entities such as banks, fintech companies and money service businesses that connect Stellar to the traditional financial system. Users deposit traditional currency with an anchor, receive a token for it on Stellar, and redeem it when they need to. This system supports a wide range of tokenized assets, from US dollars and euros to stablecoins and emerging-market currencies.
Built-in decentralized exchange
Stellar includes a built-in decentralized exchange (DEX), so users can trade assets issued on the network without an external platform. It supports direct swaps between currency tokens, stablecoins and other assets, and its order books and liquidity pools help payments convert from one currency to another along the way.
Role of XLM
The lumen (XLM) pays transaction fees, which are usually a tiny fraction of a cent, so the network works for micropayments and large remittances alike. Every account must also hold a small minimum balance of XLM, which helps prevent spam. When no direct trading pair exists between two assets, XLM can serve as the bridge currency in between.
XLM supply
All XLM was created when the network launched. The protocol originally added 1% new lumens a year, but validators voted to end that inflation in 2019. In November 2019 the Stellar Development Foundation also burned about 55 billion XLM from its own holdings, cutting the total supply roughly in half to about 50 billion. No new XLM can be created. The SDF still holds a large share of the supply, which it uses for grants, partnerships and ecosystem development, and the live circulating supply is shown in the market data on this page.
Key use cases
Traditional international transfers are slow, costly and dependent on several intermediaries. Fees often exceed 6% and settlement can take days, which hits remittance-dependent communities hardest. Stellar's design targets these inefficiencies by cutting out middlemen and reducing settlement to seconds.
Cross-border payments and remittances
One of Stellar's main uses is low-cost international money transfers. Through its integration with MoneyGram, users in many countries can turn cash into a digital dollar stablecoin and back again, with Stellar as the settlement layer underneath.
Micropayments
Stellar also suits micropayments such as small online purchases, pay-per-use content or machine-to-machine payments. Its very low fees make these practical where higher-cost networks would not be.
Tokenization of real-world assets
Stellar is a common home for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). USDC from Circle runs natively on Stellar, PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin went live on the network in September 2025, and asset managers such as Franklin Templeton and WisdomTree issue tokenized fund shares on it. In 2025 the SDF set a goal of $3 billion in tokenized real-world assets on Stellar, up from about $290 million at the end of 2024.
Institutional and enterprise adoption
Beyond consumer remittances, Stellar is building infrastructure for enterprises and financial institutions. SG-FORGE, Societe Generale's digital asset arm, issues its MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin on Stellar, one of several regulated institutions now using the network.
DeFi and stablecoin settlement
Stellar has historically been less associated with DeFi, but that is changing. Since smart contracts arrived in 2024, developers can build lending, trading and other programmable financial apps directly on Stellar, and the network's stablecoins give them a ready base of dollar and euro liquidity.
Technical upgrades
Soroban smart contracts
Soroban, Stellar's smart contract platform, went live on mainnet with Protocol 20 in February 2024. It is not compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine: contracts are written mainly in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly. Developers coming from Ethereum can follow Stellar's migration guides, and an experimental compiler can turn some Solidity code into Soroban contracts.
Protocol 23 and later upgrades
Protocol 23, known as Whisk, went live on mainnet on 3 September 2025. It added parallel execution of smart contract transactions, unified events that make token activity easier to track (CAP-67), and changes to how contract data is stored. Protocol 24 followed in October 2025 as a stability release, and Protocol 25 was scheduled for January 2026.
Areas for growth
Reliance on anchors: anchors are essential for bringing money on and off Stellar. Their solvency, compliance and reliability directly affect trust in the ecosystem.
Competition: Stellar competes with Ripple, Ethereum, Solana and other payment-focused blockchains, as well as with stablecoins on those networks.
Specialization: compared with Bitcoin, which is widely seen as a store of value, and Ethereum, which hosts a broad range of apps, Stellar is specialized for payments and asset issuance. That focus is a strength, but its growth depends on adoption in those niches.
Developer adoption: Soroban and the 2025 upgrades expand what Stellar can do, but how much developers and users take them up will decide their impact.
Price volatility: like any crypto asset, XLM's price can move sharply. This page is not financial advice.
Future outlook
The Stellar Development Foundation's published goals include joining the top 10 blockchains by total value locked, growing the number of monthly active wallets, and reaching $3 billion in tokenized real-world assets. If those goals are met, Stellar could strengthen its position as a backbone for remittances, regulated stablecoins and institutional DeFi. Success depends on keeping its partnerships, growing its smart contract ecosystem and competing with fast-moving rivals.
How to buy, sell and store XLM
You can buy XLM on Bitcoin.com with a card or bank transfer through a payment provider, sell XLM for local currency, and check what your lumens are worth with the XLM to USD converter.
XLM can be held on exchanges, but a self-custodial wallet that supports the Stellar network gives you full control of your keys. A new Stellar account needs a small amount of XLM as its minimum balance before it can receive other assets, and some exchanges ask for a memo when you deposit XLM, so check the deposit instructions before you send.
Conclusion
Stellar Lumens (XLM) represents a different approach to blockchain: one focused less on speculation and more on solving real-world problems in payments and access to finance. With its nonprofit foundation, low-cost infrastructure and growing role in remittances, stablecoins and tokenized assets, Stellar has carved out a distinct position in the digital asset landscape. It faces strong competition and changing regulation, but its focus on payments gives it a clear purpose.
