Bermuda taps Stellar to build the ‘world’s first fully on-chain economy’ – Details

The Government of Bermuda has come up with its plan to become the “world's first fully on-chain national economy.” Speaking at the 2026 Bermuda Digital Finance Forum, Premier David Burt announced that Bermuda will start transferring important financial amenities and payment activities onto the Stellar [XLM] network.  The plan complies with the Digital Asset Business Act of 2018, which provides a thorough regulatory framework for fintech and cryptocurrency. The 2018 Act also seeks to establish strict guidelines for market integrity and consumer protection.  Remarking on the same, The Hon. E. David Burt, JP, MP, Premier of Bermuda, said,  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. He added,  The use of digital dollars can change that, and the Stellar network’s capacity to support public sector initiatives are what make it possible to deliver this responsibly and at the scale Bermuda requires. How will Stellar's integration change things? For perspective, local merchants in Bermuda currently pay 3–5% in card fees for each transaction, with some categories seeing effective payment processing costs as high as 10%. However, with Stellar Network's digital wallets, residents will be able to pay local businesses and government fees, receive their wages, and also hold, send, and receive digital assets, if they're available.  Should this be successful, it could serve as a model for other governments looking to use digital assets to facilitate payment options in their countries.  Yet, despite this initiative, XLM's price action was trading at $0.1641 at press time, following a 1.26% decline over the previous day. Stellera's Q1 2026 report, however, indicates that the payment volume hit $5.5 billion in Q1, a record high and a 72% year-over-year increase. Furthermore, the RWA market cap has also grown to $1.52 billion.  Raja Chakravorti, chief business officer at Stellar, speaking at the forum, said,  Real world assets tokenized on Stellar has effectively 3xed over the last quarter. Furthermore, this aligned with AMBCrypto's recent report that Mesh has strengthened its push into stablecoin infrastructure by integrating the Stellar network as a core settlement layer. Final Summary Bermuda residents currently pay 3–5% in card fees for each transaction, but with Stellar Network's digital wallet, things will be different. The announcement did not reflect positively on the price action of XLM, as it was down by 1.26% in the past 24 hours.