Chain Compare

Blockchain guide

What is Stellar?

By Chain CompareUpdated

Overview

Stellar moves money between currencies and digital assets. It supports payments, issued assets, and exchange routes.

Compare Stellar payments by naming both assets and the payment route. Check route liquidity, trustline rules, and assumptions about which validators trust each other.

What is Stellar used for?

Stellar is a payment and asset-issuance network for transferring value across currencies and accounts.

Use cases

  • Sending payments between people or businesses in different currencies.
  • Paying in one asset while the recipient receives another through a path payment.
  • Issuing and transferring digital assets between Stellar accounts.

Who founded and maintains Stellar?

Stellar was launched in 2014 by Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim for cross-border payments and issued assets. The Stellar Development Foundation supports the network's ecosystem and public infrastructure.

What is Stellar's native token?

XLM is Stellar's native asset. It pays anti-spam fees and supplies the reserve needed for accounts and ledger entries.

  • Fees: XLM pays small transaction fees that help limit spam.
  • Account reserve: An XLM balance is required to create an account and add ledger entries.
  • Transfers: XLM can also move value directly between Stellar accounts.

Source: Stellar XLM documentation.

12-month XLM price history

The chart shows the market price of XLM over the last 12 months. It does not show network usage, project revenue, or a future return.

Recent network activity

How does Stellar work?

Stellar is a decentralized blockchain for payments and digital assets. Its validator computers use the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP): each selects trusted peers, then agrees with them on valid transactions and the next shared-ledger update. Unlike Ethereum and BNB Chain, Stellar does not use the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM); the network is built for payments between accounts, asset issuance, and path payments where the sender and recipient use different assets.

Stellar is a Layer 1 whose own network validates and records its transactions.

How a Stellar path payment reaches the recipient asset

A Stellar path payment can debit one asset and deliver another by using available offers or liquidity pools along the route.

  1. Sender assetThe sender chooses the asset and maximum amount to spend.
  2. Conversion routeStellar searches available exchange offers or liquidity-pool hops.
  3. PathZero or more conversions lead to the destination asset.
  4. Recipient assetThe recipient receives the specified asset, or the payment fails if no viable path exists.

Sources: Stellar path payments.

Apps, tools, and built-in features on Stellar

Stellar's Soroban system lets people create apps with rules that run alongside Stellar payments and issued assets.

  • Tools and language: smart contracts are normally written in Rust, using the Soroban SDK and Stellar's developer tools.
  • Trade-off: it is similar to Solana and Aptos in offering a non-EVM app environment, but Ethereum Solidity contracts and EVM tools do not run unchanged on Stellar.

Source: Stellar Soroban smart-contract documentation.

What are Stellar's trade-offs?

Stellar prioritizes payments and issued assets over EVM compatibility; its validator trust configuration is central to how the network reaches agreement.

  • Payments and efficiency: Path payments can let a sender use one asset while the recipient receives another, but the route still depends on available exchange offers or liquidity pools.
  • Security and centralization: Each validator chooses the peers it trusts. The published quorum configuration shows whether those trust choices are diverse enough to keep the network resilient.
  • Compatibility: Soroban uses Rust rather than Solidity, so Stellar apps can work with Stellar payments and assets but Ethereum contracts and EVM tools require adaptation.

Common questions about Stellar

Is XLM a good investment?

XLM is Stellar's native asset. It pays anti-spam fees and supplies the reserve needed for accounts and ledger entries. This profile does not contain current comparable price, liquidity, supply, exchange-access, governance-concentration, or regulatory evidence, so it cannot determine whether XLM is a good investment.

What should I verify before comparing Stellar?

Verify which validator groups trust each other and whether the payment route has enough available exchange offers for the assets being sent. Use the same transaction type, asset route, confirmation target, and observation window when comparing Stellar with another network.

Compare Stellar with related networks

These comparisons share a payment, asset, application, or network-design trait. The important-difference column names the boundary that can change the choice.

ComparisonShared focusImportant difference
Stellar vs TONpayments, payments and issued assets, Layer 1 networksTON is built around Telegram-linked payments and apps; Stellar is built around payments and issued assets.
Stellar vs XRP Ledgerpayments, payments and issued assets, Layer 1 networksThe main split is payments, issued assets, and built-in exchange features for XRP Ledger and payments and issued assets for Stellar.
Stellar vs Bitcoinpayments, Layer 1 networksBitcoin emphasizes BTC payments; Stellar emphasizes payments and issued assets.
Stellar vs Dogecoinpayments, Layer 1 networksDogecoin is built around DOGE payments; Stellar is built around payments and issued assets.
Stellar vs Moneropayments, Layer 1 networksThe main split is private XMR payments for Monero and payments and issued assets for Stellar.

Official Stellar technical sources

Start with the primary documentation, then check live data separately when the decision depends on it.

Overview

Architecture and validation

Apps and compatibility

Native token and market context

People and maintenance

Reviewed 15 September 2026; claims reflect the linked sources at review time.