Stellar blockchain development means building payment, asset and finance products on the Stellar network. This guide explains how to create a token on Stellar, how anchors connect the network to bank money, when to use Soroban smart contracts, and which APIs to build on in 2026.
On Stellar, issuing an asset, sending it across borders and converting it between currencies are built-in protocol features that developers use directly, and they write Soroban smart contracts only when the built-in operations cannot express the logic.
What makes Stellar blockchain development different
Most chains offer a virtual machine and leave the rest to contracts. Stellar's original protocol, called "classic", has a fixed set of operations:
- Create accounts and issue assets.
- Open trustlines, which let an account hold a given asset.
- Send payments and place offers on a built-in order book.
- Deposit into liquidity pools.
- Send path payments, which convert one asset to another in a single atomic transaction.
Ledgers close about every five seconds. The Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) gives immediate finality, so a confirmed payment cannot be reversed by a later block. Fees are paid in lumens (XLM) and stay a small fraction of a cent under normal load.
Soroban adds general-purpose smart contracts, written in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly. The Stellar Asset Contract connects the two layers by exposing any classic asset to Soroban contracts through a standard token interface, so a project can use classic assets and contracts together.
Recent Stellar protocol upgrades
Validators vote on protocol upgrades, and the Stellar developer docs list these mainnet releases:
| Protocol | Mainnet date | Main changes |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | December 5, 2024 | Constructors for Soroban contracts and BLS12-381 cryptography functions |
| 23 ("Whisk") | September 3, 2025 | Unified events and changes to state archival |
| 25 | January 22, 2026 | BN254 curve operations and Poseidon hash primitives, used in zero-knowledge proofs |
| 26 | May 6, 2026 | The Stellar Asset Contract can create balances for classic accounts, plus more zero-knowledge and math functions |
| 27 | July 8, 2026 | Authentication delegation and address-bound Soroban credentials |
| 28 | September 16, 2026 | Externally managed contract code and new map functions |
The docs list Protocol 29, a security fix release for Stellar Core, for October 1, 2026. Check the software versions page before you pin SDK versions.
How to create a token on Stellar
A Stellar asset is identified by its code, such as USDC, plus the public key of the issuing account. Anyone can issue an asset with the code USDC, but only one issuer is the real one. Wallets should therefore show the issuer or a verified home domain next to the code.
- Create an issuing account and a separate distribution account. Keep the issuer's keys in cold storage or behind multisig.
- Set flags on the issuer.
AUTH_REQUIREDmeans the issuer must approve each holder, which is common for regulated assets.AUTH_REVOCABLEandAUTH_CLAWBACK_ENABLEDlet the issuer freeze or recover funds for compliance. - Open a trustline. The distribution account submits a
changeTrustoperation for the asset. - Issue the supply. The issuer sends a payment of the asset to the distribution account, and that payment creates the tokens.
- Publish asset details. Put a
stellar.tomlfile on your home domain with the asset, the organization and contacts, and link the domain from the issuer account. - Lock the issuer if the supply must be fixed. Setting the master weight to zero freezes the issuer account permanently, so no one can use it again.
- Deploy the Stellar Asset Contract if Soroban contracts need to use the token.
Every holder must open a trustline before receiving the asset. Each trustline raises the holder's minimum XLM balance by one base reserve, which is 0.5 XLM today. A basic account needs two base reserves. With sponsored reserves, your application pays these reserves for users, and a sponsored account can even start with a zero balance.
Anchors and the SEP standards
An anchor is a regulated business that accepts bank money and issues a token on Stellar, or redeems the token for bank money. Stellar Ecosystem Proposals (SEPs) let any wallet work with any anchor:
| SEP | Purpose | Who needs it |
|---|---|---|
| SEP-1 | The stellar.toml discovery file | Every issuer and anchor |
| SEP-10 | Wallet login by signing a challenge transaction | Every wallet-to-anchor flow with login |
| SEP-12 | Exchange of KYC data | Anchors that must identify customers |
| SEP-6 and SEP-24 | Deposit and withdrawal, through an API or an interactive web page | Consumer wallets with on-ramps and off-ramps |
| SEP-31 | Cross-border payments between two anchors | Remittance and business payouts |
| SEP-38 | Firm and indicative price quotes | Payments with currency conversion |
The Stellar Development Foundation publishes an open-source Anchor Platform that implements most of these SEPs. An anchor connects its banking and compliance systems to the platform instead of writing the protocol layer itself. The Stellar developer documentation describes each SEP and the platform.
Soroban smart contracts
A Soroban contract is a Rust crate built with soroban-sdk and deployed with the Stellar CLI. Four design points affect architecture:
- Resource fees. A transaction pays for CPU instructions, ledger reads and writes, and its size. The client runs a simulation to estimate these fees before it submits.
- State archival. Contract data has a time to live, and if nobody extends it, the data is archived and must be restored for a fee. Long-lived contracts need a plan for extensions.
- Explicit authorization. A contract calls
require_authon an address, and the host checks the signature, including on calls from one contract to another. - Storage types. Instance, persistent and temporary storage differ in cost and lifetime.
Soroban suits logic that classic operations cannot express, such as lending pools, escrow with custom conditions, vesting schedules and on-chain governance. A simple payment flow should stay on classic operations, which cost less and have wider wallet support. Developers who know Solidity can apply the general practices in the smart contract development guide, but Soroban's tooling and storage model differ from Solidity's.
APIs and infrastructure for Stellar development
The Stellar docs recommend Stellar RPC for new projects. It returns current state, contract data and transactions from the last seven days, and it also submits and simulates transactions.
Horizon, the older REST API, now gets protocol compatibility updates only. It does not support smart contracts, and the docs say it will be deprecated and replaced by RPC and the Portfolio APIs. The public Horizon run by the Foundation keeps one year of history. For full history, the docs point to Hubble and Galexie, or to an indexer.
On the web, users sign with wallets such as Freighter or through a multi-wallet kit. Smart wallets on Soroban can use passkeys, which lets consumer apps skip seed phrases.
When Stellar is the right choice
Stellar fits payment, remittance, payroll and regulated-asset products, which need fast settlement, low fees, built-in currency conversion and issuer controls more than a large DeFi ecosystem. Stellar is a common choice for stablecoin issuance and for tokenized fund and asset platforms that need clawback and holder approval.
Stellar fits less well when a product depends on Ethereum DeFi protocols or when its users already hold EVM wallets; the page on blockchain for finance compares other networks.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need Soroban to create a token on Stellar?
No. A classic asset is issued with built-in operations and trustlines. Soroban is needed only for custom contract logic, and contracts can still use classic assets through the Stellar Asset Contract.
What language are Stellar smart contracts written in?
Soroban contracts are written in Rust with the Soroban SDK and compiled to WebAssembly.
Why can't a user receive my asset?
There are three common causes: the user has not opened a trustline, the account lacks the XLM reserve for a new trustline, or the issuer requires approval and has not approved the account.
Should a new Stellar project use Horizon or RPC?
The Stellar docs recommend RPC. Horizon gets no new features, does not support smart contracts and will be deprecated.
Is Stellar suitable for DeFi?
Stellar has a built-in order book, liquidity pools and Soroban protocols, but its DeFi ecosystem is much smaller than Ethereum's. Most Stellar projects focus on payments and regulated assets.