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Stellar DeFi combines exchange and liquidity features built into the Stellar protocol with applications that developers build using Soroban smart contracts. Its built-in automated market maker (AMM) lets users trade against liquidity pools; smart-contract applications can add services such as swaps and lending; and anchors connect digital assets to traditional payment rails. These are related parts of the ecosystem, but they are not all the same system: in particular, Soroban liquidity pools cannot interact with Stellar’s built-in AMM pools.
What makes up Stellar’s DeFi ecosystem?
Decentralized finance, or DeFi, refers to financial services delivered through blockchain protocols and applications. On Stellar, that includes protocol-level ways to exchange assets, smart-contract applications that developers can build, and anchor services that connect certain digital assets to fiat payment rails.
The division matters when you use a service or assess its risks. A built-in Stellar liquidity pool follows protocol rules; a Soroban application runs its own contract logic; an anchor is a provider-operated connection to deposits, withdrawals, or payments. Their assets, requirements, and risks may differ.
How Stellar’s built-in exchange and AMM work
Order book and liquidity pools are different mechanisms
Stellar stores account balances and includes an order-book decentralized exchange. Separately, its protocol supports automated market-maker pools. An order book matches buy and sell offers, while an AMM pool holds two assets and uses a constant-product invariant to determine which trades its reserves can support.
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In simplified terms, a constant-product pool aims to keep the product of its two asset reserves constant as trades change their proportions. A trade shifts the pool’s balance between the assets; the price available changes with those reserves. This is why the amount received depends on the pool’s liquidity and the size of the trade, rather than only on a quoted market price.
Providing liquidity and receiving pool shares
A liquidity provider deposits eligible assets into a pool and receives pool shares representing a proportional claim on its assets. The account needs the appropriate trustlines for the pool assets and for the pool shares. Fees accrue proportionally to providers and are collected when they withdraw.
Stellar’s liquidity documentation describes a 30-basis-point (0.30%) trading fee for its built-in AMM pools. That is the pool trading fee, not a Stellar network transaction fee. A fee rate documented for the built-in AMM should not be assumed to apply to a separate smart-contract application.
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What Soroban adds
Soroban is Stellar’s smart-contract platform. Stellar’s current product site calls it “Stellar Smart Contracts” and identifies Soroban as its former name. Developers can use smart contracts to build application-level services, including swaps, lending and borrowing, wallets, bridges, and oracles.
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Built-in AMM pools versus Soroban pools
| Feature | Built-in Stellar AMM | Soroban pool contract |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | As functionality built into the Stellar protocol | As application logic in a Soroban smart contract |
| Pool mechanics | Two-asset pools use a constant-product invariant; providers receive proportional pool shares | A developer can implement pool mechanics; Stellar’s example demonstrates constant-product pools and proportional shares |
| Interoperability between these pool types | Cannot interact with Soroban liquidity pools | Cannot interact with built-in Stellar AMM liquidity pools |
| Fee information established here | Stellar documentation specifies a 0.30% pool trading fee | Not stated as a general rate; fees depend on the application contract |
| Production status | Protocol functionality documented by Stellar | The cited developer example is explicitly not ready for production |
The separation is important: having liquidity on one side does not mean it is available to a pool on the other. To assess any particular application, check its own documentation rather than assuming that protocol-level pool rules or fees apply.
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Lending, borrowing, and ecosystem examples
Lending and borrowing are application-level services in Stellar’s smart-contract ecosystem. Blend is one named lending and borrowing protocol; Stellar’s DeFi page also describes Blend as helping power a yield product in the Meru digital wallet.
Deployment and usage 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. Those notes also reported that Sushi had deployed a concentrated-liquidity decentralized exchange on Stellar, with PYUSD/USDC and XLM/USDC pools live. These are dated snapshots, not confirmation of current liquidity, availability, returns, or performance.
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TVL is an amount of assets reported as deposited in a protocol at a given time; it does not, by itself, establish whether a market has enough liquidity for a particular trade or whether a lending position is safe. For any lending service, review its collateral and liquidation rules, supported assets, and current terms. The sources cited here do not provide comparable live data to rank Stellar protocols by those criteria.
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How anchors connect Stellar to fiat payment rails
An anchor is a service that connects Stellar assets with traditional payment systems. Depending on the service, it can accept fiat and issue an equivalent digital token, or redeem tokens for real-world value. This is how a Stellar-based application may connect an on-chain transaction to a deposit, withdrawal, or cross-border payment process.
Stellar identifies several anchor standards for these integrations:
- SEP-6: Programmatic deposits and withdrawals. A wallet integration can collect and submit customer information.
- SEP-24: Hosted deposits and withdrawals. The anchor uses a hosted web view to collect customer information.
- SEP-31: A cross-border payment API.
An anchor standard describes an integration pattern, not a guarantee that a specific provider supports every asset or location. Provider availability, identity checks, supported currencies or assets, fees, terms, and service geography vary. Confirm those details with the specific anchor before initiating a transaction.
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What to check before using a Stellar DeFi service
There is no single risk profile for the whole ecosystem. A protocol pool, a Soroban contract, a lending market, and an anchor involve different mechanisms and counterparties. Before transacting, check the service that will actually handle your assets:
- Identify the mechanism. Establish whether the service uses the built-in Stellar AMM, a Soroban contract, an order book, or an anchor integration.
- Check the market. Review the supported assets, available liquidity or depth, and the fee rules for that particular pool or application.
- For lending, read the position rules. Understand the collateral requirements and liquidation conditions before supplying or borrowing assets.
- For a smart contract, review its own documentation. A developer example is not production software, and an example’s availability does not establish that a separate deployed contract has been audited.
- For an anchor, verify provider terms. Confirm that the service supports your location and asset, and understand its identity requirements and deposit or redemption process.
Conditions can change with pool liquidity, assets, contract behavior, and provider policies. The cited Stellar materials do not establish that every protocol or anchor has the same safeguards or risks.
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