Stellar Network Aims to Become Top 10 DeFi Chain

The Stellar network, a Layer 1 blockchain designed for payments introduced its Soroban smart contracts platform in 2024, and now has its eyes on taking over DeFi. The network's new strategy and product roadmap will see Stellar looking to establish itself as a competitor in the DeFi and real-world asset space.

The Soroban smart contract launch expanded the chain’s capabilities layering on DeFi potential to an already robust remittance and payment network. The number of smart contract interactions per day has exploded, reaching all-time highs of more than 400,000 before the end of Q1.

The chain’s revenue via fees has also exploded, reaching its highest weekly level since 2021 during the first week of April according to TokenTerminal.

While the chain’s growth is undeniable, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) aims to continue to support this trend and scale towards Stellar becoming a competitive DeFi chain.

Stellar’s primary objective is to become a top 10 chain by total value locked (TVL). The network’s DeFi TVL is currently rather small, at roughly $48 million, but aims to reach the $1.5 billion mark, which would make it the 9th largest blockchain by TVL in all of DeFi.

Alongside capital statistics, another primary goal is to continue Stellar’s increase in active addresses. As a payment focused network, SDF hopes to see monthly active addresses on Stellar reach up to 5 million, with roughly 3 million, or 60%, interacting with its payments network.

In addition to its DeFi TVL aspirations, the network is also looking to cement itself as a leader in the red-hot real world asset (RWA) sector. RWAs are comprised of tokenized assets that bear traditional yield such as tokenized bonds, treasuries, private credit, and stablecoins. The Stellar network currently ranks second in tokenized treasuries and currently boasts over $470M in tokenized assets as of April 2025. The tokenized investment assets like Franklin Templeton’s Benji token or Wisdom Tree’s gold token combined with the cost efficiency of the Stellar network and global ramp network connecting traditional payment rails make Stellar one of the preferred blockchains for leveraging tokenized assets.

The chain is aiming for a $3 billion RWA target by onboarding more institutional asset issuers and expanding its retail user engagement with the sector. The expansion of the chain’s RWA market will offer not only DeFi to the underserved and underbanked communities, but also to institutions and enterprises looking to gain operational capital efficiencies. Both end users and businesses will now be able to utilize safer, traditional, yield-bearing, U.S. government backed assets onchain with all the advantages of instant settlement and cross-border flexibility.

The addition of yield accruing instruments such as RWAs and DeFi will ensure that users who leverage the Stellar payments network, will also see their capital put to work when it's not being used.

The Stellar scalability roadmap will be bolstered by the Stellar Community Fund (SCF), which empowers builders with grants and investor support to take their products to the next level. The fund has awarded $40 million to more than 600 different submissions across the SCF’s nearly 8,000 member community, and features regular demo days for new product pitches and workshops.