Stellar's decentralized finance ecosystem reached a record total value locked of nearly $273 million on October 2, according to DeFiLlama. The milestone followed a reading of approximately $265 million one week earlier, extending growth across applications on the payments-focused blockchain.

Other network indicators underscored the expansion. Stellar recorded $934.54 million in stablecoin market capitalization and approximately $2.82 billion in active real-world assets under management. Daily decentralized exchange volume reached $3.38 million, while active addresses totaled 94,972, leaving the network 5,028 addresses short of the 100,000 mark. Stablecoin holdings and tokenized assets further highlighted the network's expanding financial footprint across the XLM ecosystem.

TVL Record Extends a Week of Growth

The increase from about $265 million to nearly $273 million amounts to roughly $8 million, or around 3%, in dollar-valued assets across tracked protocols. DeFiLlama defines total value locked as assets held within protocol contracts, a measure that captures funds supporting services such as lending, trading, and liquidity provision, and one commonly used to gauge capital deployed across decentralized applications.

Stellar's DeFi applications operate alongside the network's established asset issuance and payment tools. Soroban provides the smart contract capabilities that developers use to build programmable financial applications on the network. These applications can connect lending markets, liquidity pools, and automated trading functions.

Because DeFiLlama tracks individual protocols, users can examine how the network total is distributed across applications. Dollar-based TVL changes with deposits, withdrawals, and asset prices. DeFiLlama therefore tracks inflows separately, helping analysts identify movements of funds alongside changes in valuation.

Stablecoin Holdings and Tokenization Broaden the Base

The stablecoin figure measures the value of stablecoins circulating on Stellar. These assets support transfers, settlement, and trading pairs across applications within the XLM ecosystem.

Earlier in 2026, MoneyGram launched MGUSD, a digital dollar issued on Stellar. The Stellar Development Foundation's second-quarter review placed stablecoin transfer volume at $11.4 billion, up 72% from the previous quarter. That quarterly figure covers transfers, while decentralized exchange volume measures trades executed on tracked venues — two distinct measures of activity.

Stellar's DeFi growth sits within a broader tokenization effort. The Stellar Development Foundation reported a separate real-world asset milestone above $3 billion in June. DeFiLlama's live data showed current TVL at $263.89 million when checked, below the reported October 2 record. Stablecoin market capitalization stood at $934.61 million at that time, while activity figures remained consistent.

Active Addresses Near 100,000

The reported 94,972 active addresses describe activity during a daily measurement period, leaving Stellar 5,028 addresses below the 100,000 threshold. Because the count is measured daily, the 100,000 mark refers to a single day's address activity, and subsequent daily readings will show whether the gap closes. Address activity offers another way to assess Stellar DeFi alongside the value held in applications. However, wallet counts measure addresses, and one participant can operate several accounts.

The $3.38 million in daily decentralized exchange volume measures traded value across tracked venues. Trading volume and TVL describe different aspects of activity — executed trades on one side, and assets held in protocols on the other. Together, the two metrics offer complementary views of how capital moves through the network's protocols.

Lending, Trading, and Tokenized Markets

Stellar DeFi operates alongside payment tools and tokenized real-world assets. The foundation reported tokenized Treasury products, sovereign bond funds, credit, and gold among assets issued on the network. These products extend asset coverage across several financial markets.

Blend is listed among Stellar's lending protocols, while Aquarius and Soroswap provide decentralized trading applications. Together, the services span borrowing, liquidity provision, and asset swaps on the network. Activity across applications such as these contributes to the protocol-level totals that make up the network-wide figure DeFiLlama reports. Stellar's analytics directory links to DeFiLlama for protocol TVL and historical network totals, and the foundation's Blend dashboard tracks total lending deposits, borrowing, pool utilization, and transaction volume.

XLM Underpins Fees, Reserves, and Storage Rent

XLM, the native asset of the Stellar network, supports activity through transaction fees, account reserves, and smart contract storage rent. These functions connect the token to payments and applications operating across Stellar. In practice, interacting with Stellar's applications means holding XLM to pay transaction fees and to satisfy the minimum balances the network requires of accounts.

Stellar DeFi transactions use fee rules that account for both inclusion and consumed computing resources. Smart contract data also incurs storage rent based on its size and duration.

Network accounts must maintain minimum balances calculated from Stellar's base reserve. Additional entries, including trustlines and offers, increase reserve requirements, while sponsorship lets another account cover eligible reserves.