My crypto learning journey #12 – Stellar (XLM)
Founded in 2014 by Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim (ex‑Ripple), Stellar launched as an open‑source decentralized payment network designed to simplify cross-border transactions and banking access, especially for underserved regions. It's known for using a Proof-of-Agreement (PoA) consensus mechanism and is currently being used by well-known institutions to tokenize Real-World Assets (RWA) on-chain.
Learning about XLM showed me how a purpose-built protocol can make cross-border payments more accessible, becoming another important real-world use case of this tech.
✅ As of July 2025, circulating supply is approximately 31.25 billion XLM, from a fixed max supply of 50 billion—after the Stellar Development Foundation burned 55 billion in 2019 to streamline tokenomics and support ecosystem growth.
✅ XLM is used for transaction fees (minimum 0.00001 XLM), preventing spam, and as a bridge currency in multi-currency transactions by holding liquidity between fiat or crypto pairs on the network.
✅ Real-world use cases: powering cross-border payments (via anchors) in remittance corridors, integrations and collaborations with IBM, Moneygram, Circle (USDC), etc., and enabling tokenized assets, stablecoins, DeFi, and smart contracts on Soroban.
Analogy: Stellar is like a global digital railway network—its anchors act as stations converting local currency into Lumens (XLM), enabling seamless, near-instant transfers across countries at ultra-low cost.
