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Stellar and Ethereum both support DeFi, but neither is universally cheaper or faster. Stellar transactions pay an inclusion fee, and Soroban smart-contract transactions also pay resource fees; Ethereum transactions pay for gas based on computation and prevailing gas prices. Ledger or block cadence describes when a transaction may be included—not when it is guaranteed to be included or considered final.
Which network is cheaper for DeFi?
There is no fixed answer without comparing the same transaction under the same conditions. Fees vary with network demand, the action performed, and, for swaps, the trading route and application-level charges. Official documentation explains each network’s fee mechanics but does not provide a same-time, like-for-like quote for a Stellar and Ethereum DeFi transaction.
Stellar: inclusion fees and Soroban resource fees
Every Stellar transaction requires an inclusion fee. The minimum is expressed in stroops; one stroop is one ten-millionth of an XLM. During congestion, fee bidding and network capacity affect whether a transaction is included, and network parameters can change. See Stellar’s fee and resource documentation.
A Soroban smart-contract transaction also pays a resource fee. The resource model accounts for declared usage, including CPU instructions, ledger reads and writes, transaction size, events and return values, and storage rent. A transaction that exceeds its declared resource limits can fail; some fee components are refundable while others are not. Developers can simulate a transaction to estimate resource needs and fees before submitting it. The base inclusion fee alone is therefore not a sound estimate of a Soroban contract call.
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Ethereum: gas depends on work and demand
Ethereum gas measures computational work, not a fixed transaction price. The ETH fee depends on the gas consumed and the price per unit of gas, which varies with demand and the user’s inclusion bid. A contract interaction such as a DeFi swap may consume more gas than a basic ETH transfer. A failed transaction can still incur a fee. Ethereum explains the mechanics in its gas documentation.
Swap costs include more than network fees
Stellar’s protocol-level automated market maker (AMM) charges a 30-basis-point (0.30%) pool trading fee, according to Stellar Developers documentation accessed October 4, 2026. The fee goes to liquidity providers in proportion to their pool share and is separate from the network transaction fee. Pool depth and trade size can also affect the exchange rate and price impact; this pool fee is not the total cost of a swap. Stellar’s documentation scopes this built-in AMM separately from liquidity in Soroban smart contracts. Details are in the Stellar AMM documentation.
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For an apples-to-apples cost check, identify the transaction date and time, application, asset pair, amount, and route. Record network charges separately from pool fees, spread, price impact, bridge fees, and any application fee. Do not use the cost of a simple ETH transfer as a proxy for an Ethereum DeFi call.
Is Stellar faster than Ethereum?
Nominal ledger and block timing give a sense of network cadence, not a measured guarantee of user-facing speed. Time to inclusion depends on the transaction and network conditions; an app may also wait for a later security milestone before treating a transaction as settled.
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Ethereum proof-of-stake has a 12-second slot schedule, with 32 slots in an epoch. A slot is an opportunity to propose a block, and some slots can be empty, so a transaction is not guaranteed to land in exactly 12 seconds. See Ethereum’s blocks documentation.
Stellar documentation describes ledger closes as taking a few seconds. That cadence is not a stopwatch guarantee: the close timestamp comes from the proposing validator’s system clock and may lag by a few seconds or be up to 60 seconds ahead. See Stellar’s ledger documentation.
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Inclusion is not finality
On Ethereum, a transaction’s inclusion in a block and its finality are separate milestones. Proof-of-stake finality depends on checkpoint votes reaching a two-thirds supermajority. Ethereum’s proof-of-stake documentation, last updated July 23, 2026, describes finality as taking about 15 minutes. This is a protocol-level estimate, not a guarantee about every app’s confirmation display or end-to-end completion time. See Ethereum’s proof-of-stake documentation.
For a useful speed comparison, measure the same kind of transaction on both networks and distinguish first inclusion from the finality or settlement standard the app requires. The protocol timing descriptions alone do not establish which network completes a particular DeFi action sooner.
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What DeFi functions and trade-offs should you compare?
Stellar has protocol-level order books and AMM pools through which users can trade assets; pool shares represent a proportional claim on pool reserves. These built-in exchange mechanisms are distinct from DeFi applications implemented as Soroban smart contracts. Ethereum’s fee and consensus documentation explains gas, transaction signing, and finality, but it does not establish a current comparison of application inventories or market share between Ethereum and Stellar.
| Comparison point | Stellar | Ethereum |
|---|---|---|
| Network fee model | Inclusion fee for each transaction; Soroban smart-contract transactions also pay resource fees based on declared use. | ETH fee depends on gas consumed and the price per gas unit. |
| Example application-level cost | Protocol-level AMM pool trading fee: 30 basis points (0.30%), per Stellar Developers documentation accessed October 4, 2026; separate from network fees. | No comparable protocol-wide DeFi swap fee is established by the cited documentation; fees depend on the contract and route. |
| Protocol timing description | Ledger closes described as taking a few seconds; the proposing validator’s clock can make the recorded timestamp imprecise. | 12-second proof-of-stake slots; a slot may be empty. |
| Finality reference | No comparable finality-time figure is established in the cited Stellar documentation. | About 15 minutes, per ethereum.org’s proof-of-stake page last updated July 23, 2026. |
| Like-for-like measured fee or latency comparison | Not stated in the cited documentation. | Not stated in the cited documentation. |
How to decide between Stellar and Ethereum for a DeFi transaction
- Define the exact action. Compare a swap with a swap or a contract call with the same kind of call—not a basic transfer on one network against a complex DeFi transaction on the other.
- Identify the route and asset pair. Note the application, amount, and route, since pool depth, spread, and price impact can change swap costs.
- Separate cost categories. Record the network fee, pool or protocol trading fee, and any spread, price impact, bridge, or application charge separately.
- Capture fees under stated conditions. Record the date and time and the conditions under which quotes were obtained; network fees and inclusion bids are time-sensitive.
- Set the confirmation standard. Compare time to inclusion separately from the finality or settlement milestone you need. Do not treat a slot or ledger-close interval as a guaranteed completion time.
These distinctions matter for personal-finance decisions: the useful comparison is the total cost and confirmation standard for the transaction you actually plan to make, not a general label such as “cheap” or “fast.”
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