Stellar is hitting it out of the park.
Meridian 2026 in Lisbon was not a conference of promises. It was a list of things already running, or rolling out this quarter. For a payment company, the question is no longer whether stablecoin settlement will matter. It is which of these you plug into first.
We were there for both days. One of the six stories in Meridian Pay's Made to Move exhibit was Freedom Pay Wallet — we were happy to support the Freedom Foundation in their Gambia project, and proud to see it on the wall in Lisbon.
Here is the short version — in under a minute — followed by the detail.
Five things to act on now
1. U.S. Bank: a top-five bank settles its own stablecoin on Stellar
U.S. Bank — the fifth-largest bank in America, with more than $700 billion in assets — is piloting USBDC, its own dollar stablecoin, settling across borders on Stellar. Freeze and clawback controls are built in.
Why it matters: this is the proof point regulated corporate payments have been waiting for. Settlement can happen outside correspondent banking, with the controls a bank's compliance team expects. (U.S. Bank)
2. MetaMask: Stellar by default, 30 million addresses
Stellar is now a default network in the MetaMask app and browser extension. Existing accounts get a Stellar address that can hold USDC — more than 30 million users.
Why it matters: your payees may already be able to receive. The "first, install a wallet" step just disappeared for a large share of crypto users. (MetaMask)
3. Airtm + BVNK: payouts into emerging-market wallets
Mastercard-owned BVNK connects to Airtm's emerging-market wallet network over Stellar. Airtm Connect gives businesses payout reach to suppliers, staff and families. Rollout starts in Q4 2026.
Why it matters: last-mile payout coverage is usually the hardest, slowest part of a corridor to build. This is a network you can connect to instead. (The Paypers)
4. Spiko: operating cash that earns yield between payments
Spiko's tokenized money-market fund on Stellar holds more than $2 billion. Operating cash and payout prefunding can sit in a regulated fund token that settles around the clock and earns yield while it waits.
Why it matters: prefunding is dead money in most payment businesses. It no longer has to be. (Crypto Briefing)
5. Arcane + Predicate: private payments, compliance built in
Commercial payments need counterparty and pricing confidentiality. Arcane and Predicate bring privacy with compliance controls to Stellar.
Why it matters: "our competitors can see our flows" has been one of the main objections to settling on a public network. This removes it — without removing the controls regulators require. We wrote about why this matters in Privacy in Stablecoin Transactions. (Stellar Community Fund)
What to leverage next
- Movantis — moves more than $60 billion a year across the Americas through regulated local subsidiaries, and is adding USDC on Stellar as a settlement rail, US → El Salvador first. Launch date not yet disclosed; a blueprint for stablecoin-settled remittance corridors. (Stellar)
- Project Thruput — a parallel execution model showing more than 7 million payments per second in early test benchmarks. Not in production yet. (Blockchain.news)
- Curve — the leading stablecoin exchange, with more than $1.2 billion in deposits, is now live on Stellar. FX pools to follow. (The Block)
- WalletConnect — Stellar is now reachable from 700+ wallets and 900 million users, and WalletConnect Pay adds merchant checkout. Every BP Ventures wallet supports WalletConnect. (The Paypers)
- Taurus — institutional custody and issuance for Stellar assets. (Coinfomania)
What to monitor
- Nasdaq-100 on Stellar (JQQQ) — Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launched the first licensed tokenized Nasdaq-100 fund, issued only on Stellar. Traditional asset managers are moving onto public networks. (Crypto Briefing)
- Archax €GOVY — tokenized euro government bills for euro-side treasury. (Coin-Turk)
- Securitize — the issuer behind BlackRock's BUIDL fund is adding Stellar as a supported network. (Crypto Briefing)
- Pontoro + Archax — a liquidity pool pairing money-market assets with private-fund interests. (The Currency Analytics)
- Marketnode — a Stellar Development Foundation investment to expand tokenized fund access across Asia-Pacific. (Structured Retail Products)
Building on Stellar?
BP Ventures builds stablecoin treasury and payments infrastructure for real businesses — wallets, on- and off-ramps, and settlement on Stellar. Talk to us.
For information only; not investment advice.