Built by a Ripple co-founder who thought Ripple was doing it wrong. Stellar is an open-source payment network designed to make cross-border money transfers fast, cheap, and accessible — especially for people in developing countries who can't access traditional banking. The XLM token has been a top-20 cryptocurrency for years. IBM built its World Wire cross-border payment system on Stellar. The network processes millions of transactions daily for pennies. It's the blockchain project that actually cares about financial inclusion instead of just talking about it.
Founded
2014
HQ
San Francisco, USA
Total Raised
$39 million
Founder
Jed McCaleb, Joyce Kim
Status
Active (Non-profit)
Website
stellar.orgTHE ORIGIN STORY
Jed McCaleb co-founded Ripple but left after disagreements about direction. In 2014, he and Joyce Kim launched the Stellar Development Foundation — a nonprofit — to build an open-source payment network.
McCaleb believed Ripple was too focused on banks and institutions. Stellar was designed for people — particularly the billions in developing countries who have phones but no bank accounts.
The network launched with a donation of $3 million from Stripe (who received 2 billion XLM tokens in return). From day one, the focus was on accessibility and low cost.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
Stellar is an open-source, decentralized payment network. It enables fast, low-cost cross-border transactions.
Anyone can issue tokens (including stablecoins) on the network. Anchor institutions (like banks and payment processors) connect local currencies to the Stellar network.
The Stellar Development Foundation is a nonprofit — it doesn't charge for using the network. Revenue comes from the SDF's XLM holdings and grants.
THE PRODUCTS
Stellar Network — the open-source payment protocol processing millions of transactions. XLM (Lumens) — the native token used for transaction fees and bridging.
Stellar DEX — a built-in decentralized exchange on the network. Soroban — a smart contract platform added in 2023 to enable DeFi on Stellar.
HOW THEY GREW
Enterprise partnerships. Stellar focused on getting real institutions to build on the network.
IBM's World Wire (a cross-border payment system), MoneyGram (integrated Stellar for USDC transfers), and multiple central banks exploring Stellar for digital currencies. The remittance corridor strategy — targeting specific country-to-country payment routes — gave them real-world usage.
THE HARD PART
Competition from Ripple (which has more institutional relationships), from stablecoin networks on Ethereum, and from traditional payment systems like SWIFT (which is modernizing). Regulatory uncertainty around crypto also threatens adoption.
The nonprofit structure limits the SDF's ability to raise capital compared to for-profit competitors.
MONEY TRAIL
Initial Grant
2014 · Led by Stripe
$3M raised
Direct Investment
2018 · Led by Various
$26M raised
Ecosystem Fund
2021 · Led by Stellar Development Foundation
$10M raised
WHO BACKED THEM
Stripe provided the initial $3 million and received XLM tokens. The Stellar Development Foundation holds a large XLM reserve for funding development and ecosystem growth.
Other early supporters include Google.org, BlackRock, and various development-focused organizations.
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