Key Takeaways
- Stellar adds former PayPal and Block leaders to drive growth and marketing.
- José Fernández da Ponte and Jason Karsh join as President and CMO, respectively.
- XLM rallies over 80% in a week, buoyed by high-profile hires and real-world adoption.
The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has made two major executive hires as part of its latest push for institutional adoption and growth.
On July 15, SDF announced that José Fernández da Ponte, former head of blockchain and digital currencies at PayPal, will join as President and Chief Growth Officer.
Jason Karsh, previously with Block, Blockchain.com, and Coinbase, will take over as Chief Marketing Officer.
Both hires bring deep fintech and crypto experience at a time when Stellar is actively positioning itself as a leader in real-world asset tokenization and cross-border finance.
From Big Tech to Blockchain: New Hires Signal Bigger Ambitions
Fernández da Ponte played a key role in the launch of PayPal’s stablecoin, PYUSD, and previously built and led cross-functional product and go-to-market teams for global financial services.
“After years in roles that gave me a front row seat to how payments and financial services are moving to digital across the globe, I know how difficult it is to build infrastructure that works for real-world financial services,” said Fernández da Ponte.
At Stellar, he will be focused on building out new partnerships and scaling adoption across payments, tokenization, and open finance.
Karsh, who led business strategy for Block’s Bitcoin hardware division and also held roles at Coinbase and Blockaid, will lead Stellar’s global marketing efforts.
His mandate includes aligning brand, product, and ecosystem strategy to elevate Stellar’s visibility among developers, institutions, and end users.
The SDF said the hires are part of its broader commitment to onboarding seasoned leaders capable of accelerating adoption across financial and enterprise sectors.
XLM Rides High as Institutional Interest Grows
The market responded swiftly. Stellar’s native token, XLM, jumped by more than 80% over the past week, outpacing the broader crypto market.
The rally followed the executive additions and a major real-world asset (RWA) integration: Franklin Templeton tokenized over $446 million worth of U.S. Treasuries on the Stellar blockchain.
Stellar now ranks third in RWA protocol adoption, surpassing Solana (SOL).
The protocol’s decentralized finance (DeFi) activity has also expanded, with total value locked (TVL) up nearly 16% to $141.7 million. Meanwhile, stablecoins circulating on the network now total $627 million.
