Stellar News Today: Stellar’s Collaboration with Chainlink Sets the Stage to Dominate the $2 Trillion DeFi Tokenization Trend

Stellar’s adoption of Chainlink’s cross-chain and data solutions represents a major milestone in its ambition to serve as a foundational platform for institutional-level decentralized finance (DeFi). The

Development Foundation revealed on October 31, 2025, that it is joining Chainlink’s Scale initiative to implement the network’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), Data Feeds, and Data Streams, as reported by .

Chainlink’s CCIP, which secures more than $100 billion in DeFi total value locked (TVL), will enable Stellar developers to transfer assets between blockchains without the need to rewrite smart contracts. The protocol facilitates token-agnostic transfers and programmable token actions, simplifying complex processes such as cross-chain lending and yield farming into single, atomic transactions, according to

. For Stellar, this move fits its larger goal of connecting traditional finance with blockchain technology, especially as the network reported $5.4 billion in real-world asset (RWA) payment volume in Q3 2025—a 700% quarterly increase in smart contract executions and a 37% growth in full-time developers—per .

This collaboration also tackles a key challenge in DeFi: interoperability. By utilizing Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network, Stellar gains access to a proven infrastructure that safeguards trillions of dollars in on-chain transactions. This is especially relevant as major financial institutions and Wall Street increasingly look to tokenized assets. Geoffrey Kendrick of Standard Chartered recently forecasted a $2 trillion surge in DeFi tokenization by 2028, fueled by rising interest in tokenized equities, funds, and stablecoin-based money-market products, according to

. By integrating CCIP, Stellar is well-placed to benefit from this trend, enabling smooth asset transfers across blockchains and minimizing operational barriers for institutions.

Denelle Dixon, Stellar’s CEO, stated that this integration “demonstrates that real-world adoption is happening now,” highlighting the network’s recent launches of PayPal USD (PYUSD) and Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol V2 as significant achievements. These advancements, together with protocol upgrades like Whisk (Protocol 23), have improved Stellar’s scalability and transaction speed, helping it secure the fourth spot in Chainspect’s ranking of the most active blockchains, as reported by Coinotag. At the same time, Johann Eid, Chainlink’s Chief Business Officer, pointed out that the partnership will help Stellar meet the technical requirements of institutional clients, especially in terms of data security and cross-chain functionality, as previously covered by Crypto.News.

This development also mirrors a wider industry movement toward greater interoperability. As DeFi evolves to include tokenized government bonds, commodities, and real estate in addition to speculative assets, the demand for secure, standardized cross-chain protocols is increasing. By adopting CCIP and Data Feeds—core components behind most modern DeFi projects—Stellar is positioning itself to compete with

and other leading layer-1 blockchains in the institutional market. With $5.4 billion in RWA transactions already processed and its developer community expanding by 37% each quarter, Stellar is poised to capture a substantial portion of the projected $2 trillion tokenization market, according to Coinotag and Yahoo Finance.