Stellar XLM
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Where to buy →Our take on Stellar
Stellar is an open network focused on moving value efficiently, with particular attention to low-cost cross-border payments and the issuance of digital assets. Its native token, lumens (XLM), is used to pay small network fees and can serve as a bridge asset when converting between different currencies or tokens on the network. The design aims to let individuals, businesses, and institutions issue representations of assets, such as currencies, and transfer them quickly and inexpensively. Rather than relying on energy-intensive mining, Stellar uses a consensus mechanism intended to reach agreement among participating servers. Stellar is notable for orienting its features toward practical payment and asset-transfer use cases, including connecting different financial systems and supporting tokens that represent outside value. Considerations apply as with any network. Assets issued on Stellar carry the trust and reliability of whoever issues them, so the value of a token depends partly on its issuer honoring it. The network's usefulness depends on adoption by payment providers and other participants, and XLM can be volatile in value. Regulatory treatment of payment-focused tokens and stable assets can also evolve. This text describes how the network is designed to operate and is not investment advice.
About Stellar
Stellar is an open-source, decentralized network co-founded in 2014 by Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim to facilitate the fast and low-cost transfer of value across different currencies and assets globally. Managed by the non-profit Stellar Development Foundation, the project serves as a global infrastructure that connects banks, payment systems, and individuals to expand financial access to underserved populations. Its main value proposition lies in providing a bridge between traditional money and digital networks through the use of Anchors, which are trusted entities that hold deposits and issue credits on the ledger. The network operates using the Stellar Consensus Protocol and a Federated Byzantine Agreement, where nodes choose trusted sets of other nodes to agree on the state of the ledger. This system ensures high throughput and fast finality, where transactions are considered permanent and irreversible within seconds. Key features include a built-in distributed exchange for trading assets without intermediaries and the Soroban platform for developing smart contracts. Users can also utilize the network for tokenizing real-world assets or accessing decentralized finance services like
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