Stellar Lumens to add smart contracts, partners with MoneyGram to expand ecosystem

While many might think of Stellar’s XLM as a rival to Ripple’s XRP, there’s much more to the dynamic since the two cryptos have very different operating models. The latest reports on Stellar only serve to prove this point.

Counting Stars

One piece of news that caught the attention of not just investors, but also fintech stakeholders, was the Stellar Development Foundation’s announcement that smart contracts would make their debut on the XLM network this year.

Smart contracts are coming to Stellar. pic.twitter.com/jwMnsvod5T

— Stellar (@StellarOrg) January 25, 2022

On the question of DeFi updates, Stellar’s VP of Tech Strategy, Tomer Weller, shared that MoneyGram is now part of the project to support crypto-to-cash conversions in around 300,000 international locations.

However, one use case where smart contracts and international remittances come together is the automated market maker. This refers to the protocol which allows trading to take place in a DEX, without needing a centralized authority to get involved.

AMBCrypto spoke to Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) spokesperson, Carolyn Yi, who said,

“AMMs on Stellar have introduced more efficient pathways for cross border transactions (as of January 10, 2022, about 30% of swaps were routing through the AMMs), and the ability for developers to flexibly source liquidity support for any Stellar-based project on-demand.”

Yi further added,

“As of January 10, 2022, there was over $40 million in TVL.”

In a 2022 roadmap hot off the press, Stellar stressed that it would work on achieving network scalability by using “trust-minimized innovation.” Other goals include boosting engagement, innovation, and diversity. About Stellar’s areas of focus, the roadmap added,

“For our work at the country level, we will continue to focus on network effects, in the markets that are best suited to create expansion for existing network participants: Mexico, Brazil, Kenya, Ukraine, the United States, and Canada.”

Not a time to be starry-eyed

So, how did XLM’s price take to the news? At press time, XLM’s market cap rank was 30 and the coin was changing hands at $0.1938. This was after a 3.21% drop in the last 24 hours. What’s more, over the last seven days, XLM has plunged by 21.80% in value. This has been in trend with most of the top 25 cryptos at the time.

There’s also been some buzz about Stellar’s possible foray into the CBDC space, much like Ripple which has partnered with Bhutan and Palau. While Stellar is a known name in the Ukrainian fintech space, Yi pointed out that the electronic hryvnia project is not a CBDC since the e-money will be privately issued.

However, the SDF spokesperson added that talks about potential CBDC partnerships are on.