Stellar Protocols to Watch at Meridian 2026 (With TVL)
The Stellar DeFi protocols to watch at Meridian 2026: Blend, Aquarius, DeFi Hub, Upshift, DeFindex, Templar, Soroswap and more, with TVL on 24 October 2026.
WhaleHub Research
Last updated: October 2026
9 min read
Updated 23 October 2026: TVL from DefiLlama's API (api.llama.fi/protocols, read 24 October 2026); agenda appearances from the published schedule at meridian.stellar.org/schedule.
Stellar's DeFi layer held $236.1M on DefiLlama on 24 October 2026, four days before Meridian 2026 opens in Lisbon. Most of it sits in a handful of protocols: Blend for lending, Stellar DeFi Hub's incentive vaults, Aquarius for trading, and a new layer of curated vaults. Here is who matters, how big each is, and which of them actually appear on the Meridian agenda.
Disclosure: WhaleHub publishes this blog and is included below. It is not on the Meridian agenda.
The protocols at a glance
| Protocol | What it does | Stellar TVL, 24 Oct 2026 | On the Meridian agenda? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blend | Lending pools | $136.6M | Not by name |
| Stellar DeFi Hub | Incentive vaults (Sentora) | $113.0M | Sentora on a DeFi panel |
| Aquarius | AMM, liquidity rewards, ICE voting | $39.5M | Not by name |
| Upshift | Curated vaults | $30.4M | Curator Stake Capital on a panel |
| DeFindex | Vault infrastructure for apps | $19.2M | Not by name |
| Templar | Cross-chain lending of Stellar USDC | $12.1M | Not by name |
| Soroswap | AMM and aggregator | $1.2M | SCF pitch, day 1 |
| XOXNO | Lending | $0.15M | SCF pitch, day 2 |
| Phoenix | DEX | $0.05M | Not by name |
| WhaleHub | AQUA yield optimizer | $0.01M | No |
| Reflector | Price oracle | n/a | Not by name |
| Etherfuse | Tokenized government bonds | RWA (see below) | Lightning talk, day 1 |
TVL is DefiLlama's Stellar figure for each listing on 24 October 2026. Upshift and its curator Gami Labs both show $30.4M; they are the same vaults, counted twice by DefiLlama under two names. Sushi's Stellar deployment ($15.1M) and the native Stellar DEX ($15.4M) and AMM ($8.6M) also appear on DefiLlama.
Blend — the lending base layer
Blend is Stellar's main lending protocol: anyone can create an isolated pool, and lenders earn interest from borrowers of XLM, USDC and other assets. At $136.6M on DefiLlama (Blend Pools V2), it is the largest DeFi protocol on the network.
Almost every vault on this list routes deposits into Blend, so its health sets the tone for Stellar DeFi. 2026 was a hard year for it: a community-run pool lost about $10M to an oracle manipulation in February, and the Comet pool holding the backstop was exploited for about $717K in August. What to watch: any change to how pool creators set oracles and collateral factors. Read Blend explained and Blend's 2026 incidents.
Stellar DeFi Hub — the deposit magnet
Stellar DeFi Hub, run by Sentora, is a set of XLM, USDC and PYUSD vaults that pay ecosystem incentives to depositors who stay until the period ends in November 2026. It grew from $55.8M on 9 October to $113.0M on 24 October.
Sentora's Aaron Lammer is on the day 2 panel "Next Gen DeFi: Beyond the EVM". What to watch: what happens to the money after November. Incentive programmes tend to see deposits leave when rewards end, unless they are routed into lending or trading first. Details: Stellar DeFi Hub explained.
Aquarius — trading and liquidity rewards
Aquarius is Stellar's main AMM. AQUA holders lock tokens as ICE and vote on which markets receive AQUA rewards, and projects pay bribes for those votes. DefiLlama tracked $39.5M on 24 October 2026.
Aquarius is the liquidity home for most Stellar tokens and stablecoins, including the PYUSD/USDC pool. It was a day-one partner for Centrifuge's tokenized funds when they launched at Meridian 2025. Read how Aquarius works and ICE voting and bribes.
Upshift — curated vaults
Upshift brought its multi-chain vault standard to Stellar in June 2026. Its earnUSDC and earnXLM vaults are co-curated by Gami Labs and Stake Capital and allocate across Blend, Aquarius, Sushi and Templar. DefiLlama showed $30.4M on 24 October.
Julien Bouteloup of Stake Capital Group is on the day 1 fundraising panel and the "Stellar Shark Tank". Full breakdown: Upshift on Stellar.
DeFindex — yield inside other apps
DeFindex is vault infrastructure that wallets and fintech apps integrate to give users an interest-earning balance, mostly via Blend lending. It held $19.2M on 24 October 2026 and won the interoperability prize in the Stellar i³ hackathon announced at Meridian 2025.
What to watch: new wallet and fintech integrations, since that is how DeFindex grows. See what DeFindex is.
Templar — Stellar USDC, borrowed elsewhere
Templar runs lending markets on NEAR that lend Stellar USDC to borrowers on several chains, using chain signatures so users do not bridge by hand. DefiLlama attributed $12.1M to Stellar on 24 October.
It matters because it turns Stellar USDC into borrowable liquidity for bitcoin holders and tokenized-credit holders. See Templar explained.
Soroswap — on stage on day 1
Soroswap is an AMM and swap aggregator built on Soroban, Stellar's smart-contract platform. DefiLlama shows $1.2M for its AMM, but its aggregator routes trades across other venues, which TVL does not capture.
Soroswap pitches in the "Stellar Community Fund Pitches: Institutional Use Cases" block on 28 October at 12:40. It was also a day-one partner for Centrifuge's deRWA launch in 2025. See Soroswap explained and Aquarius vs Soroswap.
XOXNO — on stage on day 2
XOXNO, known for its MultiversX marketplace, runs a lending market on Stellar that accepts tokenized assets such as USDY and Etherfuse bonds as collateral. Its Stellar lending TVL was small, $0.15M, on 24 October.
XOXNO pitches in the SCF DeFi block on 29 October at 15:00, alongside Alula, Noether, Zenex and Liqvid. See XOXNO lending on Stellar and Blend vs XOXNO.
Phoenix — a smaller DEX
Phoenix is a Soroban-based DEX with AMM pools and staking. DefiLlama tracked about $0.05M on 24 October 2026, far behind Aquarius and Soroswap.
Reflector — the price feed
Reflector is a decentralised oracle that publishes prices on Stellar, run by a set of node operators. Oracles have no TVL of their own, but they decide whether lending markets work: the February 2026 Blend pool exploit was an oracle manipulation.
RedStone, another oracle provider, gives a lightning talk on day 1. What to watch: how oracle choice and safeguards come up in DeFi sessions. Read Reflector explained and Stellar oracles compared.
Etherfuse — bonds that DeFi can use
Etherfuse issues Stablebonds, tokens tracking pools of government bonds such as US Treasuries (USTRY) and Mexican CETES. On 2 October 2026 about 11.5M USTRY (~$12.4M) and 58M CETES (~$3.8M) sat on Stellar.
David Taylor of Etherfuse speaks in the day 1 lightning talks. Etherfuse won the innovation prize in the i³ hackathon at Meridian 2025. See Etherfuse Stablebonds.
WhaleHub — the AQUA optimizer
WhaleHub stakes AQUA, pools it as ICE voting power on Aquarius, and pays stakers in AQUA, with an auto-restake switch for larger stakers. DefiLlama tracked about $0.01M on 24 October 2026, because most staked AQUA sits in ICE locks and AQUA trades at a fraction of a cent.
It is not on the Meridian agenda. If you hold AQUA, see the best yield optimizers on Stellar and what AQUA is.
Newer names on the SCF stage
The Stellar Community Fund pitch blocks are the best preview of what comes next. Projects named on the schedule include Alula, Noether, Zenex and Liqvid (DeFi), Peridot Finance (AI block), and Untangled, XCCY, Moonlight Protocol and CryptoMate (institutional). Most are early; treat them as names to research, not recommendations. How SCF works: the Stellar Community Fund.
How to read the numbers
- TVL is not revenue. Stellar DeFi Hub's size reflects an incentive programme; Blend's reflects lending demand.
- Double counting. Vaults that deposit into Blend appear in both. Adding up the table overstates the total.
- RWAs sit elsewhere. Billions in tokenized funds on Stellar (Spiko, Franklin Templeton, Ondo) are mostly outside DefiLlama's DeFi figure. See RWA platforms on Stellar.
Frequently asked questions
What is the biggest DeFi protocol on Stellar?
Blend, the lending protocol. DefiLlama showed $136.6M on Stellar for Blend Pools V2 on 24 October 2026, ahead of Stellar DeFi Hub ($113.0M) and Aquarius ($39.5M).
Which Stellar DeFi protocols are on the Meridian 2026 agenda?
On the published schedule: XOXNO and Alula pitch in the Stellar Community Fund DeFi block on 29 October, Soroswap pitches in the institutional block on 28 October, Etherfuse gives a lightning talk, and Sentora (behind Stellar DeFi Hub), SushiSwap and Curve Finance sit on the 'Next Gen DeFi: Beyond the EVM' panel. Stake Capital, one of Upshift's curators, is on an investor panel.
How much TVL does Stellar DeFi have?
DefiLlama put Stellar's DeFi TVL at $236.1M on 24 October 2026. That figure excludes centralised exchanges and most tokenized funds, which are counted separately by sites such as rwa.xyz.
Will protocols announce anything at Meridian?
We do not know, and this post does not guess. Where a project is on the agenda we say so; everything under 'what to watch' is an open question, not a leak.
Is WhaleHub at Meridian?
WhaleHub, which publishes this blog, is not on the published agenda. It is included in this list as the AQUA yield optimizer, with its small TVL shown as DefiLlama reports it.
WhaleHub is a yield-optimization protocol on Stellar. We stake AQUA, aggregate ICE voting power, and auto-compound Aquarius rewards for stakers. This series explains the Stellar DeFi stack — and the wider market around it — in plain English.
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Going to Meridian? Put your AQUA to work first
WhaleHub stakes AQUA, pools ICE voting power on Aquarius and can restake your rewards automatically, so your position keeps compounding while you are in Lisbon.
Launch the appThis article is for education only and is not financial advice. Event details are taken from the organisers' published pages as of the date shown and can change; figures change constantly. Check the official sources before acting.