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The Stellar (XLM) blockchain network has officially broken its all-time transaction speed record. According to analytics tracker Chainspect, the network reached a peak of 217.4 transactions per second (TPS) over a 100-block window. The previous record of approximately 211 TPS stood for less than two weeks.
The surge in throughput was driven by a real influx of institutional capital, rather than artificial stress tests.
The main technical driver of the record was the Protocol 28 (Adapter) upgrade, activated in mid-September. It introduced an accelerated consensus mechanism that lets validators begin voting before the entire batch of transactions has been delivered. This eliminated minor delays during peak demand.
At the same time, an update to the Soroban smart contract platform optimized its handling of large data sets.
Less hype, more money: Why just 72 projects drove the record
Statistics on the global market for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) help explain how the network reached its new performance record. As of September 27, Stellar ranked fourth worldwide by RWA value, with $3.38 billion, behind only Ethereum ($16.54 billion), BNB Chain ($5.67 billion) and Solana ($4.35 billion).
The composition of capital on Stellar differs sharply from that of its competitors. The network has just 72 active RWA projects, putting the average value per project at a record $47 million.
By comparison, that figure is $5.7 million on Ethereum and $1.4 million on Solana. Stellar has effectively become a specialized platform for large institutional holdings.
The main transaction flow taxing Soroban smart contracts and pushing the network to record speeds comes from tokenized government bonds and European treasury instruments.
More than a third of the network's total RWA value is held by the Spiko Amundi Overnight Swap Fund (EUR), at $1.16 billion. Other major holdings include Ondo U.S. Dollar Yield (USDY) at $536 million and Franklin Templeton's tokenized BENJI bonds at $431 million. Concurrent yield accrual, issuance and redemption operations across these funds drive current TPS sharply higher.
A second factor is the high turnover of stablecoins. Despite their modest $437.73 million market capitalization on Stellar, monthly transfer volume reaches $9.44 billion, indicating continuous use in real cross-border payments.
According to Chainspect, Stellar consistently processes 120–180 TPS in real time, significantly outpacing Ethereum (~20 TPS). Its new peak of 217.4 TPS remains below the record figures for Solana or Aptos (11,000+ TPS). Yet with a theoretical ceiling of 3,351 TPS, Stellar is operating at less than 10% of its capacity.
Instead of racing for the highest possible throughput, the platform offers businesses fixed fees of $0.0001 and near-instant settlement finality (around 5 seconds), a key requirement for the traditional finance sector.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
