Stellar’s Flagship Meridian Conference Focused on RWAs and Emerging Markets

Stellar, an OG Layer 1 founded in 2014, just wrapped up its flagship annual conference, where the focus was on growing its decentralized finance (DeFi) and real-world assets (RWA) ecosystems.

The Meridian conference by Stellar held in Rio de Janeiro Sept. 17-18, came on the heels of the chain’s Protocol 23 upgrade, also known as “whisk.” The technical upgrade, which is aimed at making the chain cheaper and faster, was shipped a year after Stellar’s Soroban upgrade, which added smart contracts.

Armed with smart contracts and improved scalability, the Stellar ecosystem is tackling the industry’s most pressing use cases, with stablecoin adoption, real-world asset tokenization, and blockchain-based solutions to address real-life problems. These were the themes at the forefront of the panel conversations and hallway chatter at the Copacabana Palace, where the confernece took place.

Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) CEO Denelle Dixon kicked off the event, unveiling Meridian Pay, an open-source smart wallet. The application features smart contracts invisible to users while maintaining open-source accessibility for developers.

Conference attendees received $100 worth of XLM tokens to test Meridian Pay by purchasing merchandise offered at the venue.

Enterprise Partnerships Drive Network Growth

Multiple companies confirmed Stellar integrations during the conference.

Ondo Finance’s Chief Strategy Officer confirmed USDY launch on Stellar, calling the network’s DeFi ecosystem a “perfect fit” for the tokenized Treasury product.

Etherfuse CEO Dave Taylor unveiled TESOURO, a “stablebond” based on Brazilian central bank bonds offering 13% APY, in BRL terms.

LayerZero’s VP of Business Development, Simon Baksys, also announced Stellar will be integrated into the messaging protocol during a fireside chat titled “A Vision for Universal Interoperability.”

MoneyGram Chairman and CEO Anthony Soohoo confirmed users can hold USDC on Stellar through the company’s updated application.

Speaking during a panel on bridging finance and crypto, Soohoo said the integration provides “maximum flexibility for users to hold currency in USD and redeem at the moment they want to expend in their own terms.”

DeFi and RWAs have been driving explosive growth on Stellar’s total-value locked. Stellar’s TVL is at a near all-time high of $150 million, more than a 200% increase since the start of the year, according to DeFiLlama.

Stellar’s token, XLM has a market capitalization of $12 billion and is up 300% in the past year, according to CoinGecko.

Stablecoin Growth in Emerging Markets

Former Brazilian Central Bank President Roberto Campos Neto, now Vice Chairman at Nu, addressed stablecoin adoption during a fireside chat on Brazil’s fintech revolution.

Campos Neto explained that stablecoins grow in emerging markets because they provide “a very cheap way to create an account in dollars” for countries with non-convertible currencies.

Eduardo Cavaliere, Vice Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, called the city an ideal location for stablecoin development during a different fireside chat with Dixon.

Adding to Campos Neto’s remarks about emerging markets being a fertile soil for stablecoin growth, he stated, “if there is a place for stablecoins, for blockchain to thrive, I think Rio is the best place.”

Circle’s VP of Strategy and Policy for Latin America, Daniel Mangabeira, addressed regulatory barriers during the “Cracking the Code on Cross-Chain Simplicity” panel.

He said, “People don’t say they will send a cross-border email, they just press a button,” and identified regulatory uncertainty as the primary obstacle preventing seamless blockchain payments.

Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov addressed the geopolitical implications of blockchain technology during a remote keynote, stating that “if your central bank and regulators are not doing their jobs, you have an alternative system that is much more effective.”

Real-World Asset Tokenization Momentum

The conference featured extensive discussion of tokenized real-world assets across multiple panels.

Moody’s Vice President of Latin American Financial Institutions Lucas Viegas stressed liquidity as the primary driver for institutional adoption, stating that “as soon as liquidity builds, more institutions will come, because institutions have to be certain that they can sell assets if they need to.”

Centrifuge’s DeFi and Product Lead Graham Nelson countered that “institutions are already here,” noting daily conversations with new asset issuers.

During the “Operationalizing Blockchain in Banking” panel, DTCC Digital Assets Global Head Nadine Chakar declared tokenized assets had reached “a no-return point.”

Franklin Templeton’s VP of Partnerships, Ric Golubov, described peer-to-peer functionality as an “overlooked piece of the puzzle” in asset tokenization during his keynote on day one.

Golubov said that Franklin Templeton aims to reach a point where “you don’t have to know how a tokenized asset works,” comparing it to operating a car without needing to understand its mechanics.

Technology and Infrastructure Updates

Stellar announced updates to its Disbursement Platform, adding support for multiple payment flows and smart contract functionality. Director of Product Tori Samples demonstrated the enhanced service designed to accommodate various user profiles for payroll, government payments, and B2B transactions.

Cheesecake Labs said it is testing AI agent-powered payment solutions using Stellar’s infrastructure, building on the network’s smart contract capabilities.

The development represents an expansion of programmable money concepts discussed throughout the conference, especially during the panel with 0xDesigner, who stated that agents will facilitate people in telling the money “how to move, when to move, where to move.”

Wrapping up the event, Dixon concluded by announcing the winners of HackMeridian 2025, a hackathon preceding the conference focused on real-world blockchain applications.

Organized in partnership with NearX, the hackathon recognized projects Simple Fund and Lance for their practical implementations of blockchain technology.

Simple Fund envisioned a composable investment model where users can invest in a receivable fund on-chain and receive a fungible token representing the receipt. This token can then be traded on the Stellar DEX, enhancing the efficiency of the initial investment.

Lance is a marketplace where companies can find freelance workers in a decentralized and streamlined way.