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Stellar (@StellarOrg) set a new record for its DeFi ecosystem, with total value locked (TVL) reaching roughly $242 million on May 30, 2026, the highest level the network has ever posted. That is a notable marker for a chain better known for moving money than for parking it in smart contracts.
The milestone caps a steady climb through 2025 and 2026. Stellar's TVL surpassed prior ceilings in the $196 million to $206 million range before the late-May breakout. Most of that growth traces back to real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and a maturing lending market built on Soroban, Stellar's smart contract platform.
Has Stellar Held Onto the Gains?
As of the latest DefiLlama data, Stellar's chain TVL sits at $200.36 million, down about 3.59% over 24 hours. That puts it below the May 30 peak but holding near the top of the range it traded in before the breakout.
A pullback after an all-time high is normal. The May run pushed Stellar to a new high, and the pullback has settled it back around its prior ceiling rather than below it. That is the level to watch from here.
A few numbers from DefiLlama frame the wider picture:
- Stablecoin market cap: $803.17 million, up 8.58% over seven days
- RWA active market cap: $2.078 billion
- DEX volume: $3.35 million (24h)
- Active addresses: 1.44 million (24h)
- Bridged TVL: $1.467 billion
Stellar's own dashboard puts TVL at $208 million and counting, slightly above DefiLlama’s read. Either way, the chain is sitting comfortably above $200 million. That infrastructure edge shows in the fundamentals: average transaction cost of just $0.0006667 over the last 30 days and finality in 5.3 seconds, all while supporting cash-to-crypto ramps in 180+ countries.
Which Protocols Are Driving the TVL?
Lending dominates. Blend, Stellar's main money market, accounts for $128.46 million of the chain's TVL, more than half the total. After that, the gap is steep.
- Blend (lending): $128.46 million
- Aquarius Stellar (DEX): $30.95 million
- Stellar DEX (native): $15.42 million
The rest comes largely from RWA issuers that operate across multiple chains and route assets onto Stellar. Tokenized treasury and yield products from names like Ondo, Spiko, and WisdomTree have become a real growth driver in 2026. Yield-bearing stablecoins now make up the bulk of stablecoin value on the network, with Ondo's $USDY leading the pack.
One name to watch sits well outside the top ranks. NEAR Intents cross-chain bridge holds just $109,427 in TVL on Stellar but has grown over 13,000% over the past month, including 613% in the last week. The base is small enough that the figure means little on its own, but the pace hints at fresh cross-chain flows finding their way onto the network.
Why Does This Matter for a Payments Chain?
Stellar has spent years positioning itself as a low-cost, fast rail for moving value, not as a DeFi hub. The 1.44 million active addresses and heavy daily transaction count still reflect that core job. People use Stellar to send money, not only to chase yield.
The DeFi growth sits atop that payments layer. RWA tokenization and institutional stablecoins pair naturally with a network built for low fees and high throughput, and that combination is what carried TVL to a record. $XLM, the network's token, holds a market cap of nearly $6.78 billion at a price of around $0.20.
Sources:
- DefiLlama for Stellar's chain TVL, stablecoin market cap, RWA market cap, DEX volume, active addresses, bridged TVL, and protocol-level figures (Blend, Aquarius, Stellar DEX).
- Stellar.org for the network's self-reported TVL, transaction cost, settlement time, and supported-country figures.