Stellar’s DeFi ecosystem combines exchange and liquidity features built into the network with applications written as smart contracts. Its built-in automated market maker (AMM) is distinct from Soroban smart-contract pools: the two use separate liquidity systems and cannot interact. Anchors add another layer by connecting Stellar assets to traditional payment rails.
What makes up Stellar DeFi?
There are three related but distinct parts: protocol-native trading and liquidity, smart-contract applications, and services that connect digital assets to fiat payment rails. A user may encounter all three while moving assets through the ecosystem, but they are not interchangeable.
- Protocol-native exchange and AMM: Stellar includes an order-book decentralized exchange and built-in liquidity pools.
- Smart-contract applications: Soroban, now presented on Stellar’s product site as Stellar Smart Contracts, lets developers build application-level services such as swaps and lending.
- Anchors: These services connect Stellar assets with traditional payment rails, enabling deposits and redemptions subject to each provider’s terms and availability.
How Stellar’s built-in exchange and AMM work
Order books and liquidity pools are different mechanisms
The Stellar network stores account balances and provides an order-book exchange, where offers to buy and sell assets can be matched. Its built-in AMM is a separate way to trade: rather than matching an individual buyer with a seller’s offer, it uses a pool holding two assets. A constant-product rule governs which trades the pool can accept as its asset balances change.
What a liquidity provider does
- Set up the required account relationships. The account needs appropriate trustlines for the pool’s assets and for the pool shares.
- Deposit the eligible assets. A provider contributes the two assets to a pool.
- Receive pool shares. These shares represent the provider’s proportional claim on the pool’s assets.
- Collect the provider’s share of fees on withdrawal. Fees accrue proportionally and are collected when the provider withdraws.
Stellar’s liquidity documentation describes a 30-basis-point (0.30%) trading fee for built-in AMM pools. That is a pool trading fee, not a Stellar network transaction fee. A pool’s changing asset mix also means the value and composition of a provider’s claim can change; pool shares are not a fixed-value deposit.
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How Soroban smart-contract DeFi differs
Soroban is Stellar’s smart-contract platform. Developers can use it to create app-level services, including swaps, lending and borrowing, wallets, bridges, and oracles. These services are implemented by applications rather than being the same built-in pool mechanism described above.
Stellar’s developer documentation includes a constant-product liquidity-pool contract as an example. It describes deposits, proportional shares, and fee accrual, but explicitly warns that the example is not ready to use as a production contract. Most importantly, Soroban pools are exclusive to Soroban and cannot interact with liquidity pools built into the Stellar protocol.
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| Feature | Built-in Stellar AMM | Soroban pool contract |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Built into the Stellar protocol | As smart-contract application logic on Soroban |
| Liquidity relationship | Uses protocol-native pools and pool shares | Uses its own contract pool and share mechanics |
| Can use the other system’s pools? | No interaction with Soroban pools | No interaction with built-in Stellar AMM pools |
| Fee information established here | 30 basis points (0.30%) pool trading fee in Stellar liquidity documentation; separate from network fees | A general fee rate is not stated in Stellar’s example-contract documentation |
| Production status | Protocol functionality documented by Stellar | Stellar says its example contract is not ready to use as a production contract |
Lending and examples of applications
Lending and borrowing are application-level services in Stellar’s smart-contract ecosystem. Blend is one named example: Stellar’s official DeFi page identifies it as a lending and borrowing protocol and says it helps power a yield product on the Meru digital wallet.
Deployment and activity figures are time-sensitive. Notes from a Stellar developer meeting dated April 16, 2026, reported Blend above $80 million in total value locked (TVL) at that time. The same meeting notes said Sushi had deployed a concentrated-liquidity decentralized exchange on Stellar, with PYUSD/USDC and XLM/USDC pools live. These are dated snapshots, not assurances that the same TVL, pools, or availability apply today.
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How anchors connect Stellar to payment rails
An anchor is a service that connects Stellar with traditional payment rails. Depending on the service, it may accept fiat and issue an equivalent digital token, or redeem tokens for real-world value. A token’s ability to move on Stellar does not by itself guarantee that a particular anchor will accept it or serve a user’s location.
Stellar’s anchor standards include SEP-6 for programmatic deposits and withdrawals, SEP-24 for hosted deposits and withdrawals, and SEP-31 for a cross-border payment API. In a SEP-6 integration, a wallet can collect and submit customer information; SEP-24 instead uses an anchor-hosted web view to collect it. Which method is available, what assets are supported, what identity checks are required, and what terms apply depend on the provider and location.
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What to check before using a Stellar DeFi service
There is no single risk profile for every Stellar application, pool, or anchor. Review the specific service rather than assuming protocol-level functionality makes an application or provider risk-free.
- Identify the system. Confirm whether a pool is built into Stellar or is a Soroban contract; liquidity in one system is not automatically available in the other.
- Check the market and liquidity. Review the assets supported, available markets, and liquidity depth for the exact pool or protocol you plan to use.
- Understand fees and contract design. Find the applicable trading and network fees, inspect the protocol’s documentation, and look for relevant audit information. Do not treat Stellar’s demonstration pool contract as audited production software.
- For lending, inspect the rules. Review the protocol’s collateral and liquidation rules before supplying assets or borrowing.
- For fiat access, verify the anchor directly. Check supported assets, your location, identity requirements, redemption methods, and provider terms.
- Recheck time-sensitive claims. TVL, live pools, supported assets, and provider availability can change; dated ecosystem announcements do not establish current conditions.
The available official information does not provide enough comparable, current data to rank individual Stellar protocols across liquidity, fees, contract design, lending rules, and geographic access. Assess the specific service and transaction rather than treating the ecosystem as one uniform product.
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