Bermuda taps Stellar to widen government blockchain payments

Bermuda’s government is sticking to their plan of migrating their national economy onchain and is now partnering with the Stellar Development Foundation to move payments and other financial services onto its network, XLM. 

The island mentioned that its residents were facing processing costs of up to 10%, making the move onchain not just an attempt at modernizing the system, but a necessary step for retaining economic value.

Bermuda moves onchain

The Stellar Development Foundation and the Government of Bermuda announced today that Bermuda will begin moving its payment and financial activities onto the Stellar network (XLM). Bermuda revealed its plans to become the world’s first fully onchain national economy at the World Economic Forum in January this year.

The announcement explains that local merchants currently pay 3% to 5% per transaction in card fees, and effective payment processing costs can reach as high as 10% in some categories. Introducing the use of digital assets and infrastructure will keep more of that value on the island.

Under the plan, Bermudian residents will be able to receive wages, pay local merchants, settle government fees, and hold, send, and receive digital assets through digital wallets on the Stellar network.

Government agencies expect to pilot stablecoin-based payments, financial institutions will be able to integrate tokenization tools, and residents can participate in nationwide digital literacy programs. Digital assets may also be used for government payment systems related to social service disbursements.

“The lack of mobile money applications and reliance on legacy payments infrastructure has left Bermudians paying high payment processing fees and hindered additional economic growth opportunities,” The Hon. E. David Burt, JP, MP, Premier of Bermuda said.

Denelle Dixon, the CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation, added that Stellar was built for the purpose of seamlessly connecting the global financial system.

Before Bermuda, the Philippines had also launched a blockchain transparency system called Integrity Chain for its Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) after citizens held mass protests over corruption in flood-control projects.

An estimated 130,000 people protested on September 21, 2025, demanding accountability after reports of overpriced contracts, substandard construction, and ghost projects. The Australian Institute of International Affairs shared that the Philippines allocated over $33 billion to flood-control projects across 15 years.

What other blockchain initiatives is Bermuda working on?

Cryptopolitan recently reported that the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), the island’s central bank and financial regulator, recently completed an “Embedded Supervision Solution” with Chainlink (LINK), Apex Group, Bluprynt, and Hacken.

The solution, announced earlier this month, demonstrates how rules can be built directly into digital asset infrastructure and enforced in real time. The system uses Chainlink’s Automated Compliance Engine (ACE) to check every transaction against Bermuda’s policies.

With Proof of Reserve, it verifies that digital dollars are backed by real money in a bank account. It also uses Secure Mint to stop new coins from being issued when reserve limits have been reached.

Apex Group, acting as an independent fund administrator with $3.5 trillion in assets serviced across 52 countries, supplies authenticated reserve data from third-party custodians. Hacken’s Extractor platform provides real-time onchain monitoring with a detection speed of 250 to 500 milliseconds.

The market has not shown significant price action following today’s announcement. XLM is trading around $0.1622, down approximately 4.82% over 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data.

XLM has spent most of 2026 trading below $0.20, fluctuating primarily within the $0.15 to $0.18. The 0.20 level now serves as both technical resistance and a major psychological barrier. Above this level, the next resistance zone sits around $0.22 to $0.25. On the downside, support clusters around the $0.15 to $0.16 range.

Notably, the CME Group began rolling out futures for XLM in February 2026, but the impact on XLM’s price has remained limited, and the futures listing has not yet generated enough buying momentum to push the token out of its sideways range.

According to the Stellar Foundation, the network surpassed $2 billion in onchain real-world asset (RWA) value in the first quarter of 2026. Data from DeFiLlama shows that the network currently has a stablecoin market capitalization of approximately $ 415 million, with its daily decentralized exchange (DEX) volume around $1.83 million.

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