The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced a strategic partnership with non-custodial wallet provider TopNod, unveiled at the Consensus conference in Hong Kong. The integration aims to boost Stellar network adoption across emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, with an initial focus on the Philippines, Singapore, Japan, and other Asian nations.
TopNod's wallet technology eliminates traditional seed phrases by utilizing key sharding and Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology. The platform is designed to prioritize access to tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and stablecoins over speculative tokens, targeting regions with low financial inclusion.
In an exclusive interview, Stellar Chief Business Officer Raja Chakravorti identified Asia Pacific as "a critical growth driver." SDF plans to expand its anchor networks in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam over the coming year. Chakravorti stated that more financial institution partnerships in the APAC region will be announced in the next two quarters.
The partnership is part of SDF's broader 2026 strategy, which shifts focus from building tokenized products to solving distribution challenges. "Last year was really about proving that tokenized products can be built at scale," Chakravorti told BeInCrypto. "This next year is really going to be about focusing on finding the right distribution outcomes for these assets."
Supporting this strategy, SDF has also partnered with Singapore-based tokenization platform MarketNode and is in discussions with financial institutions about tokenizing money market funds in the region. The foundation aims to onboard at least 15 enterprise partners in 2026, with five expected to launch live financial products.
On-chain data reveals Stellar's RWA value crossed $1 billion over the past year, and its DeFi Total Value Locked (TVL) has tripled. However, the native XLM token has significantly underperformed, falling roughly 71% from its 2025 high of $0.52. While daily transaction volumes have held steady, average transaction values have declined, indicating sustained core payment use but a drop in high-value capital flows.
Stellar's recent Protocol 25, known as the "X-Ray upgrade," introduces native zero-knowledge cryptography for institutional-grade privacy. Chakravorti framed this as a compliance necessity, noting privacy configurations must remain auditable for regulators. "Privacy elements may encompass send, receive, who is the holder — but importantly, these have to be auditable," he explained.
The TopNod integration is expected to go live in the coming months, though no specific timeline was provided. SDF also confirmed its annual Meridian conference will move to Abu Dhabi in October 2026.
