U.S. Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the United States, has begun piloting the custom issuance of its own stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain. This move is a significant endorsement from a regulated traditional bank, highlighting the growing use of blockchain infrastructure to modernize payment settlement while adhering to strict legal and compliance standards.
The bank selected Stellar due to its proven operational reliability, boasting over 99.99% network uptime, extremely low transaction fees (payments settle in seconds for a fraction of a cent), and native asset control features. A key factor was Stellar's clawback mechanism, which allows issuers to recover assets when mandated by law or consumer protection rules, providing the regulatory oversight banks require.
This institutional test coincides with robust growth in Stellar's stablecoin ecosystem. In 2025, the total market capitalization of stablecoins on the network surged 53% year-over-year, from $159 million to $243.6 million. This growth was largely fueled by the launch of PayPal's PYUSD and the expansion of Circle's USDC on Stellar.
Beyond banking, Stellar's role as a bridge between traditional and blockchain finance is expanding. Visa recently added three new stablecoins to its network, and payment providers like Wirex enable card settlement on-chain using stablecoins, bypassing intermediary banks. Furthermore, the network's real-world asset (RWA) sector saw explosive growth, with the combined market value of tokenized assets like US Treasury funds and commercial real estate products on Stellar skyrocketing 196% to $890.2 million in 2025. These assets are now integrated into Stellar's DeFi applications, which collectively have a Total Value Locked (TVL) of $172.5 million.
Amid this fundamental growth, Stellar's native token, XLM, is showing positive technical signals. At the time of reporting, XLM was trading at $0.243, up 9.18% in 24 hours. Market analysts observe an inverse head and shoulders pattern forming on the daily chart since November 2025, a classic bullish reversal indicator. A daily close above the $0.254 neckline could strengthen the case for a rally toward $0.33. Supporting this view, the daily RSI is around 56, indicating buyer activity without overbought conditions, and the MACD histogram has been positive since December, suggesting a broader trend change.
