XLM Stellar Rank #19 $0.1977 ▲ 0.46%

Stellar is an open-source, decentralized blockchain network that was co-founded in 2014 by Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim to enable fast, low-cost transfers of value across currencies and assets. It is operated by the non-profit Stellar Development Foundation and functions as global financial infrastructure linking banks, payment systems, and individuals, with a particular focus on extending services to underserved populations. The network connects traditional money to digital rails through Anchors, trusted entities that hold deposits and issue credits on the ledger. Stellar runs on the Stellar Consensus Protocol, which uses a Federated Byzantine Agreement in which nodes select trusted counterparties to validate transactions. The design supports high throughput and settlement in a few seconds. Built-in features include a decentralized exchange for trading assets without intermediaries and Soroban, a smart contract platform. The network is also used for tokenizing real-world assets and supporting decentralized finance activities such as peer-to-peer lending. XLM is the native utility token. It facilitates multi-currency transactions by serving as a bridge asset, helps protect the network from spam through small transaction fees and minimum balance requirements, and has a fixed supply, as the community voted to end automatic token issuance.