Key Takeaways
- Many companies are using the Stellar Network to simplify cross-border payments and expand financial access for individuals and businesses.
- Stellar enables fast, low-cost payments by connecting financial institutions, fintechs, and anchors across global regions and currencies.
- It supports stablecoins, fiat anchors, and mobile wallets, making it easier for users to move value across multiple markets securely.
- Companies adopting Stellar strengthen trust in blockchain-based payments by showing practical use cases that improve everyday financial transactions.
The Stellar network arrived in 2014 with a plan to improve financial transactions, making them faster, more inclusive, and affordable. Created by Jed McCaleb, who also co-founded Ripple, Stellar uses its native token Lumens (XLM) as a bridge for digital and fiat currencies. The network provides a decentralized platform where money moves with transparency and where the settlement duration shrinks from days to seconds. That makes Stellar especially attractive for global payments and remittances, industries where speed and cost savings matter most.
The real measure of Stellar’s influence depends on adoption. The network gains value when payment providers, banks, and fintechs integrate it into their services. This article highlights companies that use the Stellar network and explains how each applies the technology.
10 Payment Companies Using Stellar Network
A wide variety of organizations, from multinational banks to African fintechs, have joined the Stellar ecosystem. Each company applies the network in unique ways, often tied to the markets it serves.
MoneyGram – Global Remittance & Settlement
MoneyGram International, Inc., based in Dallas, USA, traces its roots to 1940. It grew into one of the largest money transfer companies worldwide, serving consumers who need to send money across borders, often into local currencies where cash pickup or delivery matters.
MoneyGram embraced Stellar by partnering with the Stellar Development Foundation and Circle to enable the use of USDC (a dollar-pegged stablecoin) on the Stellar network. The integration allows consumers in certain markets to convert between cash and USDC, send funds using Stellar’s settlement rails, and receive payouts in local fiat, often faster and with lower cost than traditional remittance rails.
Circle – USDC Issuer and Liquidity Backbone
Circle is a fintech company founded in 2013 and based in the US. CEO Jeremy Allaire leads the company. Circle issues USDC, a reserve-backed digital dollar used by crypto exchanges, digital wallets, and payment firms globally. Its clients range from trading venues to fintechs and enterprises that need reliable dollar liquidity. Circle’s IPO in 2025 strengthened the credibility of stablecoins like USDC as the company had to meet financial and regulatory standards.
USDC also lives on Stellar. Many payment flows on Stellar, including B2B treasury and consumer remittances, settle in USDC because it’s fast and widely accepted. Circle’s role is to mint and redeem USDC and maintain its peg. On Stellar, this gives companies a stable foundation for payouts, invoices, and cross-border settlements while keeping costs low and finality near-instant.
Flutterwave – Africa to Europe Payments
Founded in Lagos in 2016 by Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Flutterwave has grown into one of Africa’s largest fintech companies. Its platform connects thousands of businesses across more than 30 African countries, processing billions in annual transactions. The company serves enterprises, SMEs, and global firms that want to reach African consumers.
Flutterwave partnered with Stellar to link African payment corridors to Europe. Through Stellar’s integration with USDC stablecoin, the firm facilitates remittances and business transfers at lower fees and with faster delivery than traditional channels. For a continent where remittances are vital, this partnership enables families and businesses to transact more efficiently across continents.
Tempo – European Remittance Specialist
Tempo was founded in Paris as a licensed money transfer provider with a focus on Europe and Asia. The company runs retail locations, agent networks, and digital platforms that help workers send money abroad. Tempo is registered with French regulators and has earned trust as a compliant and transparent financial service provider.
Tempo uses Stellar to power its digital Euro stablecoin, which operates within its remittance network. The integration allows customers to send euros across borders, exchange them for local currencies, and receive value in seconds. Tempo’s role as a Stellar anchor means it bridges fiat and digital assets, helping millions of migrants and their families move funds quickly and affordably.
Coins.ph – Financial Access in the Philippines
Coins.ph, founded in 2014 by Ron Hose and Runar Petursson, is a mobile financial services platform serving more than 16 million users in the Philippines. It offers wallet services, bill payments, and cryptocurrency trading. The company’s reach in a country with a large unbanked population makes it a vital channel for financial inclusion.
Through Stellar, Coins.ph enables remittances into the Philippines from abroad. Families receive payments directly into their Coins.ph wallets, where they can withdraw to banks, cash-out partners, or use funds for services. Stellar’s infrastructure supports low-cost transfers into the country, addressing the needs of overseas Filipino workers who send billions annually to support their relatives.
Anclap — LATAM Stable Fiat and Everyday Payments
Anclap operates in Latin America, including Argentina and Peru. The company focuses on real-world, everyday payments. It supports card loading, bill pay, and local services, helping people move value without relying on slow traditional rails. Its users include both individuals and businesses that need to send and spend in local currencies.
Anclap issues local-currency tokens on Stellar and provides send/receive services over the network. That means users can hold digital fiat that maps to local money and still pay day-to-day expenses.
For merchants, it simplifies acceptance. For users, it reduces exposure to inflation and FX pain while keeping the ability to settle in local currency. Stellar’s open standards allow Anclap to plug into popular wallets and apps easily.
Stronghold – USD Anchor on Stellar
Stronghold, based in San Francisco and founded in 2017 by Tammy Camp, focuses on digital payments and asset tokenization. The company serves institutional clients by providing blockchain-based settlement infrastructure. Its platform offers custody, compliance, and digital asset services.
Stronghold integrated with Stellar as the first venture-backed USD anchor on the network. The company issues tokenized US dollars that trade on Stellar and settle instantly between parties. This connection between fiat and digital assets broadens Stellar’s utility for enterprises that require dollar-based settlement with blockchain speed.
Airtm – Dollar Accounts and Enterprise Payouts
Airtm runs a digital dollar wallet used across Latin America and other emerging markets. It serves consumers who want to hold stable value and spend it locally. It also supports enterprise payouts and freelancer earnings, which need fast arrival and easy off-ramps to local money.
Airtm integrates Stellar to move USDC across borders and fund user balances. For enterprise payouts, Stellar reduces time and fees and makes status tracking easier. Users can then convert to local currency through Airtm’s network of methods. The result is a simpler flow: send USDC on Stellar in, pay out in local money, while keeping compliance and records in line.
Wirex – Consumer Wallet and Card With Stellar Support
Wirex is a global consumer wallet and card provider. It offers crypto and fiat accounts, card spending, and exchange features. Users want a single app to hold digital assets and use them in daily life. Wirex partners with card networks and handles compliance in supported markets.
Wirex supports Stellar-based assets, including XLM and Stellar-issued stablecoins. This lets users move funds over Stellar when they need speed and low cost, then spend with their card. Under the hood, Stellar makes on-chain transfers cheaper and more predictable, which helps Wirex deliver better pricing and a faster user experience.
Kado – Anchor and Interoperability Provider
Kado launched in 2021 with a focus on payments infrastructure for digital wallets and DeFi applications. Based in the United States, it builds tools for developers and businesses who need to integrate fiat currency services into their applications. Its early products attracted attention in regions where fiat connectivity to blockchain was limited.
Kado uses Stellar’s Anchor Platform to connect bank accounts and wallets to the network. The company offers fiat deposits and withdrawals that interface with Stellar assets, helping businesses simplify transactions for their users. Kado’s work highlights how new fintechs can plug into Stellar’s ecosystem and expand its global footprint.
Can Governments Freeze Crypto?
One frequent question about digital currencies relates to control. Governments can freeze accounts at centralized exchanges because those companies operate within regulatory systems and must comply with official directives. However, governments cannot freeze the underlying blockchain itself.
Stellar operates as a decentralized network with nodes distributed globally. Each transaction recorded on the ledger is permanent, transparent, and outside the control of any single entity. Once a transaction receives confirmation, it cannot be reversed or erased by an external authority. This structure ensures that while access points like exchanges can face restrictions, the Stellar network continues to process and store transactions independently.
The difference lies in where funds reside. Assets on a centralized platform can be frozen by regulators through legal means. Assets already transferred into a private wallet on Stellar remain under the control of the wallet owner, secured by cryptographic keys. This separation highlights the resilience of decentralized payment networks and the enduring ownership they provide to users.
How to Read This List
The ten companies above use Stellar in different ways, and the easiest way to make sense of them is by which problem they’re actually solving. Circle and a handful of stablecoin issuers treat Stellar as one of several settlement rails for USDC and similar tokens — useful if you need cheap, fast on-chain dollar transfers without paying Ethereum gas. MoneyGram, Flutterwave, and Wirex are at the cash-in/cash-out edges, turning XLM and Stellar-issued stablecoins into local fiat at retail counters or via card products — the relevant choice if your use case is remittances. Kado and similar API-first players sit underneath fintech apps that need an embedded payments layer without building one. Before integrating with any of them, two practical checks: confirm the corridor pairings actually cover the geographies you need (Stellar coverage is uneven), and verify whose KYC and reserve attestations the underlying stablecoin relies on — that’s where most of the real risk lives.
