Stellar’s Asian Strategy Takes Shape
Stellar Development Foundation announced at Consensus Hong Kong that TopNod, a non-custodial wallet, will integrate with the Stellar network. This move forms part of SDF’s broader push into Asia Pacific markets, where competition from Solana, TON, and XRP in payments and tokenization remains intense.
TopNod’s wallet uses key sharding and Trusted Execution Environment technology, which eliminates the need for traditional seed phrases. The platform focuses on tokenized real-world assets and stablecoins rather than speculative tokens. But I should note it’s a relatively young project with limited brand recognition outside Web3 circles.
Focus on Emerging Markets
In an exclusive interview, Stellar CBO Raja Chakravorti called Asia Pacific “a critical growth driver.” He said SDF plans to build out anchor networks in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam over the coming year.
“We brought employees in the region focused on Singapore first, but we’ve really been focusing on expanding rapidly,” Chakravorti explained. He added that more APAC financial institution partnerships would be announced over the next two quarters, though specifics weren’t shared.
SDF has also partnered with MarketNode, a Singapore-based tokenization platform, and is in discussions with financial institutions about tokenizing money market funds in the region.
The ambition is clear enough, but execution remains the real question. Stellar’s on-chain RWA value crossed $1 billion over the past year, and its DeFi TVL tripled. Yet XLM has fallen roughly 71% from its 2025 high of $0.52, underperforming both Bitcoin and Ethereum. Daily transaction volumes have held steady, but average transaction values have dropped. This suggests core payment use cases persist while speculative and high-value capital flows have dried up.
The Distribution Problem
Chakravorti acknowledged that tokenization alone is no longer the differentiator. “Last year was really about proving that tokenized products can be built at scale,” he told BeInCrypto. “This next year is really going to be about focusing on finding the right distribution outcomes for these assets.”
This is arguably Stellar’s biggest challenge. Franklin Templeton’s tokenized money market fund remains the network’s flagship RWA product, and US Bank recently announced a stablecoin partnership. But competing chains are moving fast — Solana and Polygon are both founding members of the same Blockchain Payments Consortium as Stellar, and networks like Ethereum and Avalanche continue to attract institutional tokenization projects.
Privacy and Compliance Balance
Stellar’s recent X-Ray upgrade introduced native zero-knowledge cryptography. Chakravorti framed this as an institutional necessity rather than a privacy-maximalist play.
“Privacy elements may encompass send, receive, who is the holder — but importantly, these have to be auditable,” he said. “The privacy may look slightly different depending on who you’re talking to.”
Whether this configurable approach satisfies both regulators and privacy-conscious users in Asia’s diverse regulatory landscape remains to be seen. It’s a tricky balance, honestly.
Looking Ahead
SDF confirmed its annual Meridian conference will move to Abu Dhabi in October 2026. The TopNod integration is expected to go live across the Philippines, Singapore, Japan, and other Asian markets, though no specific timeline has been provided.
For Stellar, the formula feels familiar: strong infrastructure, growing institutional interest, and a clear narrative. The missing piece — as Chakravorti himself admitted — is distribution at scale. Building the technology is one thing, but getting it into people’s hands, making it useful in daily life — that’s the harder part, I think.
Perhaps the Asian expansion will provide that missing piece. Or perhaps it will reveal more challenges. The next year should tell us more about whether Stellar can translate its technical capabilities into real-world adoption across these diverse markets.
