Strategic partnership will enable fast, low-cost cross-border payments across Southeast Asia on the Stellar blockchain
Blockchain financial protocol Velo Labs today announced an integration with Interstellar that will enable faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments across Southeast Asia by building a global settlement network.
Interstellar, headquartered in San Francisco, is a technology company transforming the payments industry by advising businesses and developing products and solutions. Interstellar primarily leverages the Stellar blockchain, which supports more than 4.8 million accounts and functions both as a platform for issuing digital assets and as a cross-currency transaction system.
The Stellar Network and Thai conglomerate CP Group jointly support Velo Labs, which is based in Southeast Asia. Velo’s goal is to build a federated credit exchange and connect existing banking infrastructure with the crypto economy, bridging centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi).
The strategic partnership, launched in January 2020, will combine Velo’s regional connections across Southeast Asia with Interstellar’s Stellar blockchain expertise to modernize international payments. The integration will be led by Interstellar’s CEO and Velo Labs’ new CEO, Mike Kennedy, with backing from Lightnet Group and the Stellar Development Foundation.
Kennedy commented: “Interstellar has focused on transforming cross-border payments with Stellar blockchain technology, particularly in Southeast Asia. Bringing the Velo and Interstellar teams together is a natural progression of that work and will accelerate our shared vision to drive implementation and adoption throughout the region. We’ve already achieved a great deal together, and I’m proud to lead this team into the next phase of growth.”
Last year Velo Labs launched the VELO token on the Stellar Network with Interstellar’s support. Velo Labs has also developed core features such as digital credit issuance on the Velo protocol, completed the first live transactions on the Federated Credit Exchange network, and secured VELO listings on major exchanges.
Jed McCaleb, founder of Interstellar and a co-founder of the Stellar Network, added: “This is a meaningful step for the Stellar ecosystem because it opens the potential for new anchors on the network, creates new on/off ramps in Asia, and generates business opportunities for both the Velo and Stellar communities. Ultimately, it brings us closer to the future we envision, where Stellar links global financial infrastructure to make it faster, more affordable and more accessible.”