- Bermuda will move key payment and financial services onto Stellar as it works toward a fully onchain national economy.
- Stellar wallets will support wages, merchant payments, government fees, digital assets, and stablecoin payment pilots in Bermuda.
Bermuda is moving key payment and financial services onto the Stellar network as the island advances its plan to become the world’s first fully onchain national economy. The Stellar Development Foundation and the Government of Bermuda announced the initiative on May 12, marking the first operational step since Bermuda presented the plan at the World Economic Forum in January 2026.
The rollout will support digital wallets, stablecoin-based payments, tokenization tools, and public-sector payment use cases. It also places Stellar at the center of a national digital finance project, giving the network its first economy-wide deployment tied to government services, merchants, financial institutions, and residents.
Today, the Stellar Development Foundation and the Government of Bermuda announced that Bermuda will begin moving key payment and financial-services activity onchain onto the Stellar network.
Learn more 👇https://t.co/Fh0uaKg3FL
— Stellar (@StellarOrg) May 12, 2026
Bermuda has built its digital asset policy over several years. The country introduced the Digital Asset Business Act in 2018, one of the earliest broad regulatory frameworks for digital asset firms. That foundation now supports the government’s push to move payment activity from legacy systems toward blockchain-based rails.
Local merchants currently pay card transaction fees of 3% to 5%, while some categories face effective payment processing costs of up to 10%. Bermuda wants digital asset infrastructure to lower those costs and keep more payment value within the local economy. The plan also targets faster access to digital financial services across the island.
Residents will be able to receive wages, pay merchants, settle government fees, and hold, send, or receive digital assets where available. These services will run through digital wallets built on the Stellar network. Stellar’s cash on and off-ramp network will also support access between digital assets and traditional money.
Bermuda Builds On Stellar’s Payment Network
Government agencies expect to pilot stablecoin payments as part of the transition. Financial institutions will also gain access to tokenization tools, which can support new forms of regulated digital financial products. Public programs may use digital assets for government payment systems, including social service disbursements.
Premier David Burt said Bermuda’s lack of mobile money applications and reliance on older payment systems have raised costs for residents and businesses. He said digital dollars can change that, while Stellar’s public-sector capacity allows the country to deliver the project responsibly and at a national scale.
Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon said Bermuda has the regulatory clarity, ecosystem alignment, and government support needed for an onchain economy. She added,
“Stellar was purpose-built to streamline and seamlessly connect the global financial system. It delivers sustained transaction volume, enterprise-grade reliability across financial applications at scale, and is the network for regulated on-chain assets.”
The announcement also fits Dixon’s recent focus on native tokenization. In a blog post earlier this month, she argued that native tokenized securities differ from wrapped assets, as they use the blockchain itself as the ownership ledger. The model can support direct custody, daily distributions, faster settlement, verifiable governance, and lower access costs for retail investors.
Franklin Templeton’s onchain money market fund on Stellar is an example of that structure. The fund pays interest from the moment an investor holds the token and distributes yield daily through new token issuance. Also, lower recordkeeping costs on Stellar helped reduce minimum access to $20, showing how tokenized finance can serve smaller investors.
Bermuda’s Stellar plan follows another recent digital asset oversight project involving Chainlink. On May 7, the Bermuda Monetary Authority completed a pilot using Chainlink tools for real-time digital asset supervision.
