Big upgrade incoming - Stellar’s latest protocol upgrade, Whisk, goes live tomorrow when validators vote it in.

Here’s why it matters:

• Unified Events → classic ops + smart contracts finally speak the same language. no more fragmented data.
• Parallel Transaction Processing → faster throughput, lower latency, lower fees.
• Fee reductions + scalability → wasm caching, better memory usage, groundwork for state archival, and more flexible validator configs.

For builders, this removes friction and makes dev life easier. For users, it means faster and cheaper transactions. For the network, it’s about scaling to meet real world demand!

Full details here: Introducing Whisk, Stellar Protocol 23

Curious what you all think! which of these changes do you think will have the biggest impact?

For voting on 3rd September below is AI summary of key points

Protocol 23 Overview: What’s New?

1. Soroban Enhancements

• Live State Prioritization (CAP‑0062) Separates active (live) smart contract state from archived data. Live data stays in RAM ("Live State BucketList"), while archived Soroban entries move to disk ("Hot Archive"), enhancing efficiency and paving the way for future improvements. GitHub+15Stellar+15Crypto News Focus+15
• Parallel Transaction Execution (CAP‑0063) Smart contract transactions can now run in parallel across CPU cores, significantly boosting per-ledger performance and scalability. stellar.messari.io+4Stellar+4Stellar+4
• Reusable WASM Module Cache (CAP‑0065) Introduces a persistent in-memory cache for compiled WASM modules. Eliminates repetitive parsing and validation, reducing execution costs. groups.google.com+3Stellar+3Stellar+3
• In-Memory Read Resource (CAP‑0066) Live Soroban state is fully stored in RAM, eliminating expensive disk reads. Also enables automatic restoration of archived entries—no manual intervention needed. Stellar+2GitHub+2
• Unified Asset Events (CAP‑0067) Unifies event formats for both built-in operations and Soroban smart contracts via SEP‑0041. Enables retroactive event generation to support full history re-ingestion for analytics infrastructure. OKX+8Stellar+8Stellar+8
• New Host Functions (CAP‑0068 & CAP‑0069)
  • CAP‑0068: Add a function to fetch the executable type (e.g., WASM vs built-in) of a given contract—useful for security and dependency logic.
  • CAP‑0069: Adds utility functions for converting between strings and byte arrays (bytes_to_string and string_to_bytes), streamlining contract code. Stellar+2Stellar+2

2. Validator & Consensus Enhancements

• Configurable SCP Timing (CAP‑0070) Validators can now adjust consensus parameters—like ledger close timing and timeout increments—to fine-tune latency and responsiveness over time, without a full protocol upgrade. Stellar+2GitHub+2

Timeline & Preparation Steps

• Testnet launch: July 17, 2025 — Protocol 23 is live for testing. stellar.messari.io+15Stellar+15Stellar+15
• Testnet reset & stable releases: August 14, 2025 — Testnet ledger data is wiped; developers must update all related software (Core, Horizon, RPC, SDKs) and migrate any persistent testing infrastructure. Crypto News Focus+5Stellar+5groups.google.com+5
• Mainnet upgrade vote: September 3, 2025, at 17:00 UTC — upon successful voting, the protocol goes live on the main network. groups.google.com

Why It Matters (Especially for Developers)

• Smarter, Faster Smart Contracts Major performance gains via RAM-based state, parallel execution, and caching make Soroban contracts significantly cheaper and quicker.
• Cleaner Event Streaming & Historic Data Support Unified event formats and retroactive emission (via CAP-0067) simplify auditing, analytics, and wallet/indexer implementations.
• Better Control for Validators Adjustable consensus timings (CAP-0070) offer stealthy route to optimize finality and throughput without disruptive protocol forks.
• New Utilities for Contract Logic Contract introspection (CAP-0068) and string/byte conversion tools (CAP-0069) streamline development and enable more secure patterns.

TL;DR Snapshot

Hey I've been wrong b4 😉

Buy when markets are fearful. But for many of us will never be an opportunity like this again.

Some years ago, I received some Stellar Lumens as payment for a Mechanical Turk job. I received an email from Stellar that contained my "key" (the long string of numbers). I never got around to moving my Lumens out of the Stellar site, and now I can't find that original email. I must have opened it (in Live), and then closed it without saving it - which I guess the system then deletes it? Or does it? I'm trying to track down my Lumens or that email. Is there any way to contact Stellar directly? I'm hoping that since I know the date and the email that they can help me. Or does anyone here have any other suggestions? Can anyone tell me where Live puts old emails, and how long they retain them?

https://stellar.org/blog/foundation-news/department-of-commerce-posts-gdp-data-on-stellar

https://www.versabank.com/releases/?VERSABANK-ANNOUNCES-VERSABANK-USA-LAUNCH-OF-TOKENIZED-DEPOSIT-PILOT-PROGRAM-IN-UNITED-STATES-id-122707

"Issuance and redemption and basic management of USDVBs will occur through VersaBank's proprietary VersaVault digital vault platform on the Algorand, Ethereum and Stellar blockchains"

Big news! Telegram Wallet just announced Stellar support.

That means 100M+ Telegram users can now:

• Deposit and withdraw XLM directly inside the app
• Swap XLM with other tokens
• Buy XLM with a card
• Even earn daily XLM rewards by depositing TON

Why this matters
Because it’s not just “another listing.” This puts Stellar’s payment rails and growing DeFi ecosystem directly into one of the most used messaging apps on the planet. It’s a massive step toward making crypto actually usable where people already are.

XLM powers Stellar for payments, tokenized assets, DeFi, and turning digital dollars into local cash through global on/off ramps. With telegram wallet, all of that just got way closer to everyday users.

Curious what you all think too. Do you think integrations like this make crypto feel more natural to mainstream users and help drive mass adoption? Where else would you like to see stellar supported?

We’re so early in the crypto space, crazy early. Unless you are an investor you likely have never heard of XLM, let alone know what it does. But I think that will change. At one point, everyone learned about BTC for the first time.

For a few days now, stellar_io has been sending emails with these as their email name:

"Stellar Allert" and "Stellar Account"

The subjects are: "Re: Confirm Wallet: Your account has been restricted from accessing the Stellar network. "Re: Alert - request to change Stellar wallet key." - In the body, "A request to generate a new secret key for your Stellar Wallet has been received."

The emails come from: - contack_at_stellar_io - contact_at_stellar_io

It all have a PDF attached which I haven't opened.

When I check stellar_io it's very different, it's now an influencer marketing service.

I seem to have missed something about stellar_io?

Just update your app to start managing your assets securely in one place.

🚀 Peridot Finance is live in SCF #38!

Hey Stellar community,

We’re excited to share that Peridot Finance is officially up for voting in the Stellar Community Fund #38 Build Award! 🎉

What’s Peridot?

We’re building a cross-chain lending & borrowing protocol designed to connect liquidity across blockchains. Users can supply assets to earn sustainable yields or borrow against their collateral all powered by algorithmic interest rates that adjust in real-time. By bridging Stellar with EVM chains, our goal is to make DeFi markets more accessible, efficient, and inclusive.

👉 Check out our SCF application here

Recent progress we’re proud of:

🚀 Launched our PoC on Stellar Testnet

🌍 Grown to 15,000+ unique users on our EVM deployment

💰 Reached $2M+ TVL and $500K+ weekly volume

🤝 Partnered with Axelar, iExec and other ecosystem leaders

We’re also humbled by the SCF reviewers’ feedback, which highlighted our traction, detailed milestones, and potential to bring meaningful value to Stellar’s DeFi ecosystem. That encouragement motivates us to keep delivering. 🙌

We’d love your thoughts: 👉 Which networks would you most like to see connected to Stellar through Peridot? 👉 What features would make Stellar-native DeFi irresistible to you?

Your feedback helps us build in the right direction. And if you believe in what we’re building, we’d be honored to have your support in the vote 💚

Let’s keep pushing cross-chain DeFi forward, together.

Top of The Stack

Stellar x NEAR Intents:  Stellar is now live on NEAR Intents — enabling seamless, native swaps across 20+ chains. No bridges, no waiting, no complex workflows.  Integrate NEAR Intents directly into your project with one-click swap API.> Try it now

build kit : New tools, frameworks, and code

OpenZeppelin Security Detectors SDK — New Release

Strengthen your smart contracts with OpenZeppelin’s open-source security framework for Stellar.

New features:

• Extensible SDK for building custom detectors with AST traversal, symbol resolution, and macros
• Prebuilt detectors for common pitfalls (improper TTL extension, contract panics, unsafe temp storage)
• Soroban-scanner CLI tool for running detectors against your codebase
• CI/CD pipeline integration (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, etc.)
• Fully compatible with OpenZeppelin Inspector as a custom scanner

> Explore the code

Stellar CLI — New Features

Enhanced data access, and troubleshooting features—right from your terminal.

What’s new:

• 🛠️ stellar doctor: new troubleshooting command to help diagnose common issues
• 📡 stellar fee-stats: command to display network fee statistics
• 📡 stellar network settings: command for managing network configuration settings

> See the code 

Stellar Lab — New Features

Enhanced contract invocation for Stellar Asset Contracts.

What’s new:

• 🛠️Contract invocation on Lab now supports Stellar Asset Contract (SAC) invocations

> Explore now

git status : 

Infra-level updates: protocol changes, SDK releases, and performance fixes

🚨Protocol 23 Mainnet Upgrade — Sept 3 🚨Protocol 23, the biggest protocol change to the Stellar network since smart contracts went live, is rolling out with an abundance of performance and usability enhancements 

⚡ Action Required: Update your SDKs, Horizon, Stellar RPC, and Core before Sept 3 to ensure compatibility.

> Read the upgrade guide

spotlight :

Tutorials and demos

• Learn Kalepail's Secret Sauce for Setting up an AI Workflow Tyler’s latest and greatest tips and tricks
• Open Zeppelin Smart Contracts MCP A Video Walkthrough from the OZ team
• Tomer Explains Smart Contracts on Stellar to Rachel Wolfson Plus Stablecoin Adoption and Product Launches
• NFT Royalties on Stellar with Open Zeppelin A Step-by-step guide
• Smart Contracts & Passkeys Using Smart Contracts & Passkeys To Set Up Auth On A Web App
• Options 101 Building Call Options Contracts on Stellar

merge :

Everything community

AMA with Denelle Dixon (CEO), Jason Karsh (CMO), and José Fernández da Ponte (Head of Strategy & Partnerships)?  >  Catch the replay

Stellar Community Fund  SCF #39 still open for submissionsGet up to $150k in XLM > Apply now

Stellar Community Launch — Giveth QF Round kicks off Aug 19 Donation Eligibility > How to Make a Donation

Kale Reflector Hackathon — deadline Sept 1Virtual hackathon, $12k prize pool > Register here

📍 HackMeridian Rio — Sept 15–16Official hackathon of Meridian2025Prize pool: $50K in XLM meridian.stellar.org/hackathon

📍 Meridian2025 — Sept 17–18, RioStellar’s flagship conference for builders, ecosystem leaders, and policymakers meridian.stellar.org

📍Korea Blockchain Week — Sept 22-28, Seoul koreablockchainweek.com/

📍Token2049 — October 1-2, Singapore asia.token2049.com/

📍 DevConnect — Nov 17–22, Buenos Aires devconnect.org/

/* comments */ : 

CryptoTwitter Roundup

• Stellar joins Boundless
• PYUSD on Stellar
• Stellar hits 100M TXs 
• Tomer on Stellar closing the gap on DeFi
• Denelle on Why CrossChain Matters
• Stellar joins ERC 3643 for Interop Standards
• Stable Summer Meme Competition 
• July Ecosystem Highlights

Good Reads

• RPC: Now with Infinite Scroll
• Follow The Money
• Retroactive Events Coming with P23
• Stellar Events: Track All the Things
• The Road to 5000 TPS: Scaling Stellar in 2025
• Parallelizing Stellar Core: The First Step to 5000 TPS

Got feedback or something we should include next time? Hit us up on Discord or X.

>  Join Stellar Dev Discord>  Follow u/BuildOnStellar

Not sure what the huge drop over the last year means but it doesn't feel like something good. Anyone have any thoughts on why yield has dropped so low, so quickly?

I’m seeing this as something that can be downloaded but I’m wondering how legit it is. It’s the only option on that can be downloaded

Hey everyone,

The team behind Stellar HACKS is back with our third mini-hackathon, and this one is all about building on top of live, established projects. If you're a dev looking to build on a fast, low-cost L1, this is for you.

TL;DR: We're hosting a 2-week virtual hackathon on Stellar. Build on one or both of the featured projects and compete for a $12,000 prize pool in XLM, with 10 winning spots.

The Challenge: Compose the Future on Stellar

Instead of building from scratch, your mission is to use existing projects as building blocks. This round features two very different, very cool projects:

• KALE (https://kaleonstellar.com/): A proof-of-teamwork meme token. It's not a winner-take-all system; all participants ("farmers") who contribute work share in the rewards. It’s fun, community-driven, and has generated a ton of activity on the network.
• Reflector (https://reflector.network/): The gold-standard price oracle on Stellar. It’s a DAO-governed protocol that provides crucial, real-world data on-chain (crypto prices, forex rates, etc.), making it an essential tool for any serious DeFi application.

You can build something that enhances KALE, a new DeFi tool powered by Reflector, or get creative and combine them!

Why You Should Join:

• 💰 A FAT Prize Pool: Thanks to a sponsorship from Reflector, we've got $12,000 in XLM up for grabs. We're rewarding the Top 10 submissions, so there are plenty of chances to win.
  • 1st Place: $5,000
  • 2nd Place: $2,750
  • 3rd Place: $1,750
  • (And so on, down to 10th place)
• 🛠️ Build on a Live Platform: Get hands-on experience integrating with live contracts, APIs, and SDKs that are already being used in the wild.
• 💬 Direct Support: We have a dedicated Telegram group where you can get direct help from the developers of both KALE and Reflector, plus our team. No getting stuck on a simple problem for hours.

Key Details:

• Prize Pool: $12,000 in XLM
• Submission Deadline: September 1
• Format: 100% virtual - participate from anywhere.
• Teams: Go solo or team up!

Ready to get started?

1. Main Hackathon Page (Register & All Info): https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/stellar-hacks-kale-reflector/detail
2. Join the Support Telegram: https://t.me/+FEA6-X1dfelkMzE5

We've got workshop videos and an "Ideas" tab on the hackathon page to help you brainstorm. Think DeFi insurance, prediction markets, gamified finance, automated portfolio tools, or something completely new.

Happy to answer any questions you have in the comments below!