The Meridian Conference by Stellar took place in Rio de Janeiro from September 17th to 18th.
Founded in 2014, Stellar, an OG layer 1, has compiled the flagship annual conference. It focused on expanding the Decentralized Financial (DEFI) and the Real World Assets (RWA) ecosystem.
The Meridian Conference by Stellar, held in Rio de Janeiro from September 17th to 18th, came just after the chain’s Protocol 23 upgrade, also known as “Whisk.” The technical upgrade aimed at making the chain cheaper and faster was shipped a year after Stellar’s Soroban upgrade, adding smart contracts.
The stellar ecosystem with improved smart contracts and scalability tackles the industry’s most pressing use cases with adoption of stubcoins to address real-life issues, real-world asset tokenization, and blockchain-based solutions. These were themes at the forefront of the panel’s conversation, and hallway chatter at Copacabana Palace, where Confernece took place.
Denelle Dixon, CEO of Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), has launched the event with the announcement of Meridian Pay, an open source smart wallet. The application has smart contracts that are invisible to users, while still maintaining open source accessibility for developers.
Meeting participants received an XLM token worth $100 to test Meridian’s salary by purchasing products offered at the venue.
Enterprise Partnerships drive network growth
Several companies confirmed the integration of the stars during meetings.
Ondo Finance’s Chief Strategy Officer confirmed the launch of USDY on Stellar, calling the network’s Defi Ecosystem the “perfect fit” to its tokenized financial products.
Dave Taylor, CEO of Etherfuse, has announced Tesouro, a “stable bond” based on Brazilian Central Bank bonds that provides 13% APY from a BRL standpoint.
Simon Baksys, vice president of business development at Layerzero, announced that Stellar will be integrated into messaging protocols during a fireside chat entitled “Vision of Universal Interoperability.”
MoneyGram Chairman and CEO Anthony Soohoo has confirmed that users can keep USDCs in Stellar through the company’s latest applications.
Speaking on the Bridging Finance and Crypto panel, Soohoo said the integration “provides maximum flexibility for users to retain the US dollar currency and redeem the moment they want to spend on their terms.”
Defi and RWA are driving explosive growth with Stellar’s total value lock. According to Defillama, Stellar’s TVL is a record high of $150 million, an increase of more than 200% since the start of the year.
According to Coingecko, Stellar’s Token’s XLM’s market capitalization is $12 billion, an increase of 300% over the past year.
Stable growth in emerging markets
Currently Vice-Chairman of the NU, Brazil’s Central Bank President Roberto Campos Neto, worked on adopting Stablecoin during a fireplace chat at Brazil’s Fintech Revolution.
Campos Neto explained that stubcoin will grow in emerging markets as it offers a “very cheap way to create an account” to countries with non-convertible currencies.
Eduardo Cavallière, vice mayor of Rio de Janeiro, called The City an ideal location for stable development during a random chat with Dixon.
In addition to Campos Neto’s remarks, he said, “If there’s a stable place, if there’s a place for blockchain to flourish, then I think Rio is the best place.”
Daniel Mangabeira, vice president of Latin American Strategy and Policy Circle, tackled regulatory barriers during the “cracking the code of cross-chain simplicity.”
He identified regulatory uncertainty as a major obstacle to prevent seamless blockchain payments by saying, “People don’t say they’re sending cross-border emails, just pressing a button.”
ChainLink co-founder Sergey Nazarov tackles the geopolitical implications of blockchain technology during the remote keynote, saying “when central banks and regulators are not at work, there are more effective alternative systems.”
The momentum of real-world asset tokenization
The conference took place extensive discussion of tokenized real-world assets across multiple panels.
Lucas Viegas, vice president of Moody’s Latin American financial institutions, highlighted liquidity as a major factor in institutional adoption, saying “As soon as liquidity is built, more institutions come because we need to be sure we can sell assets as needed.”
Centrifuge’s Defi and product lead Graham Nelson retorted, “The agency is already here,” noting daily conversations with new asset issues.
During the “Banking Operations Blockchain” panel, the global head of DTCC digital assets Nadine Chakar declared that the tokenized assets had reached “no return”.
Rick Golboff, Vice President of Partnerships at Franklin Templeton, described the peer-to-peer functionality as “some of the overlooked puzzles” of asset tokenization during the opening day keynote.
Golbov says Franklin Templeton aims to reach the point that “there is no need to know how tokenized assets work,” and compares that to operating the car without the need to understand its dynamics.
Technology and infrastructure updates
Stellar announced an update to its payment platform, adding support for multiple payment flows and smart contract features. The Director of Product Tori Samples demonstrated an enhanced service designed to accommodate a variety of user profiles for payroll, government payments and B2B transactions.
Cheesecake Labs has tested payment solutions powered by AI agents using Stellar’s infrastructure and said it is based on the network’s smart contract capabilities.
This development represents an expansion of the concept of programmable money discussed throughout the conference, particularly in the 0xDesigner panel.
To conclude the event, Dixon concluded by announcing the winners of Hackmeridian 2025, a hackathon ahead of a conference focused on real-life blockchain applications.
Hackathon has recognized the project’s Simple Fund and Lance for its practical implementation of blockchain technology, organized in collaboration with Cherowx.
The Simple Fund envisioned a combined investment model in which users could invest in accounts receivable funds on the chain and receive a representative token representing receipts. This token is traded on a star DEX, which can increase the efficiency of initial investments.
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