Stellar Network Processes 14.16 Million Transactions on October 23

Fees Hold at $0.00012 Under Record Load

The Stellar (XLM) network posted its heaviest day of on-chain traffic in more than a month on October 23, processing 14.16 million transactions. On-chain tracking from the analytics service Chainspect shows a daily average of 163.9 transactions per second, the rate at which the chain finalized operations across that date, and its 30-day view ranks October 23 first for volume among every session since mid-September. The burden carried straight into October 24, when throughput set fresh intraday highs of 224.6 transactions per second during several windows. Transactions per second, or TPS, measures how many operations the ledger finalizes each second, so a 163.9 average reflects sustained load rather than a single burst. The detail our desk reads as the real story sits in the cost line rather than the count. On most large blockchains, a multifold jump in traffic congests the chain and transaction pricing climbs with it. Stellar (XLM) did neither: the average fee held at $0.00012, a fraction of a cent, through both sessions, and the network kept running without interruptions. Anyone benchmarking that figure against other networks can trace the mechanics in our Complete Guide to Crypto Network Fees. The month offers a precedent as well, since October 11 saw the chain absorb 12 million transactions at 139 TPS while transfer costs stayed just as low. The usage record lands against a softer backdrop for the token itself: our recent coverage followed the XLM price extending a 5% drop to $0.175 in a Bitcoin-led risk-off session, so settlement demand on the rails is running well ahead of what the chart reflects. The transactions clearing the network carry stablecoin transfers and tokenized assets rather than order-flow chasing the token, and that distinction shapes how durable the traffic may prove.

Upgrades and Stablecoin Flows Carry the Traffic

Two forces explain where the load came from, and the first is engineering. The Protocol 28 upgrade, released in September under the name Adapter, rebuilt the mechanisms that govern how much transaction flow the network can carry, and the chain printed a 217.4 TPS peak over a 100-block window on September 26 as an early result. That window test matters because sustained spikes, not momentary bursts, are what strain weaker chains. Infrastructure work continued on October 14, when Chainlink price data feeds went live on the network, giving builders external price data without leaving the chain. The next upgrade, Protocol 30, known as Bell, goes to a community vote in the coming days, and the Stellar (XLM) Development Foundation has already published its operator software requirements for node runners ahead of that vote. Demand is the second force, and it is the heavier one. A quarterly report covering Q3 2025 puts total financial transaction volume on the network at $33.2 billion, a 71% increase from the prior quarter. Stablecoin transfer volume rose 121% over the quarter to $25.1 billion, which works out to 314% growth year over year, making stablecoins the clear majority of the network's financial flow, and a newer asset, USDT0, contributed by reaching $200 million in turnover within 10 weeks. Tokenized real-world assets, the RWA class that represents conventional instruments on-chain, added a further layer: their volume stands at $4.1 billion, and the segment booked a landmark in the first institutional repo deal with automatic rollover, collateralized by tokenized U.S. Treasuries issued as USDM1 tokens. Repo, briefly, is short-term funding secured against securities, and the transaction shows how money-market operations from traditional finance are being absorbed into DeFi 2.0 structures on public rails.

Bell Vote and Meridian Frame Late October

The broader on-chain record supports the case that the surge rests on durable capacity rather than a one-off burst. Uptime has stayed at 99.99% while total accounts passed 11 million, and contributor counts place Stellar (XLM) second among layer-1 networks by active developers, with roughly 4,000 specialists building on the platform. Our view is that the flat fee line under record load is the capability that matters: capacity that scales without repricing is what makes a chain usable for recurring, regulated payment flows. Two markers now set the pace. The Bell vote lands in the coming days and will show whether the throughput trajectory continues, while the Stellar Meridian 2026 conference in Lisbon on October 28–29 gathers the institutional side of that flow. Even if the wider bull market cools, the low-cost rails argument does not depend on token momentum.