Stellar (XLM) TVL Sets Record $273 Million on DeFi Growth

Stellar TVL Prints Record $273 Million

The Stellar (XLM) network set an all-time high in DeFi on Friday, October 2, with the total value locked across its protocols reaching roughly $273 million. On-chain tracking places the same figure near $265 million only a week earlier, so capital committed to applications on the chain grew by about $8 million in seven days, a weekly lift of roughly 3%. Total value locked, or TVL, counts the assets users deposit into protocols running on a blockchain, and it is the standard yardstick for comparing DeFi activity across networks; the Friday reading is the highest recorded since the chain launched. Stellar is an open-source blockchain built around cross-border payment infrastructure, and it has spent recent years assembling a native DeFi layer on top of that payments base, with the XLM token settling transfers across the ledger. For a network that operated mostly as a payments rail, the locked-value trajectory matters because deposits are the raw material of lending, trading and tokenization products, and without committed capital those applications cannot scale. The milestone lands even as the XLM price slipped 3.7% over the past 24 hours, a split between on-chain growth and token performance that traders will weigh in upcoming sessions. Payment-focused chains tend to accumulate locked value slowly, since flows track commercial corridors rather than speculative rotations, and the October print fits that pattern. The direction of deposits still points up: a move from $265 million to $273 million inside one week reflects steady accumulation rather than a one-day burst, and it comes against a low base, because the network's DeFi footprint remains far smaller than that of the largest smart-contract chains.

On-Chain Use Broadens

Usage across the Stellar network widened alongside the locked-value record. Stablecoins circulating on the chain reached a combined market capitalization of $934.54 million, while active real-world assets under management climbed to $2.82 billion. RWA, short for real-world assets, describes tokenized representations of traditional instruments such as bonds, credit and fund shares recorded on a blockchain, and it has become the fastest-growing use case for payments-oriented chains because institutions want regulated instruments moved over existing transfer rails. Stablecoin float is a core input for on-chain settlement, the segment Stellar (XLM) was built for, and a float above $930 million gives payment firms room to route transfers without leaving the ledger. Combined, the stablecoin and RWA lines represent roughly $3.75 billion in assets on the network, more than ten times the DeFi deposit base, the shape typical of a payments chain where tokenization leads and lending follows. Decentralized exchange volume over the trailing 24 hours stood at $3.38 million, and daily active addresses rose to 94,972, leaving the network 5,028 wallets short of the 100,000 line. The address figure counts wallets that sent a transaction during the measurement window, so the approach to six digits reflects recurring users rather than a one-off event. These gains sit on top of recent protocol work: Stellar mainnet activated the Protocol 28 upgrade, which introduced an adapter contract and a contract data migration, and the token drew wider attention after a 28% monthly climb led analyst Peter Brandt to call it a long-shot bet. Chart context supports the same arc, because Stellar (XLM) had already reclaimed its 50-week moving average with $0.2227 in sight. Liquidity pools on the chain remain shallow by major-network standards, so the DEX figure should be read as an early-stage market taking shape rather than a mature one.

100,000 Active Addresses Next

COINOTAG's read of the primary dataset backs the headline number: the DeFiLlama page for the Stellar chain lists $273 million in total value locked as of October 2, the highest entry in its record, against roughly $265 million seven days earlier. That page is the reference desks cite for chain-level capital, and its current figures describe a network accumulating deposits rather than churning them. The next milestone is administrative rather than price-driven: 100,000 active addresses, a line the network closed Friday just 5,028 short of. If deposits and user counts hold the same weekly pace, the record TVL reading will not stand for long.