Stellar — native issuance, anchored stablecoins, Soroban
Stellar is purpose-built for cross-border value transfer. We track XLM, native asset issuance, anchored stablecoins (USDC, EURC), and Soroban smart contracts.
Stellar's design center is fast, cheap cross-border value transfer. Native asset issuance is first-class — any account can issue an asset without a smart contract. Anchors connect Stellar to fiat rails (USDC anchored by Circle, EURC, MXN-anchored versions for remittance corridors). Path payments allow atomic multi-asset swaps in a single transaction. Soroban is the new Rust-based smart-contract platform, enabling DeFi-style logic on Stellar.
What's tracked on Stellar
XLM transfers
Native asset movement with the per-transaction base fee.
Issued assets
Native asset issuance with the issuer attribution preserved.
Path payments
Multi-asset atomic swaps decoded into the underlying movements.
USDC / EURC anchors
Anchored stablecoin transfers and anchor deposits / withdrawals.
Soroban contracts
Rust-based smart-contract activity decoded against the contract WASM.
Common Stellar transaction patterns we classify
- Send / receive XLM
- Native asset payment (other issued token)
- Path payment (atomic multi-asset swap via SDEX)
- Create account (XLM base reserve, 1 XLM minimum)
- Trustline setup (account enables a new asset)
- Stellar DEX (SDEX) offer place / cancel
- USDC anchor deposit / withdrawal (Circle)
- EURC anchor payment
- Soroban smart contract invocation
- Asset issuance (issuer account creates new token)
- Token clawback (issuer revokes tokens)
- Claimable balance claim
What changes when you book Stellar
Trustline setup consumes base reserve, not an expense
Adding a trustline for a new Stellar asset increases your account's minimum XLM balance requirement by 0.5 XLM per trustline. This reserve is a refundable balance — it is returned when you remove the trustline. Wag3s tags reserve additions as a locked receivable rather than an expense, preventing them from inflating your cost lines. The base fee for the trustline transaction (0.00001 XLM) is the only true cost.
Path payments require disaggregation into individual asset legs
A path payment on Stellar converts one asset to another via one or more intermediate hops through the SDEX order book in a single atomic transaction. Each hop is an implicit disposal and acquisition of an intermediate asset, potentially triggering realised gains at each step. Wag3s disaggregates path payments into their individual legs and applies cost-basis tracking at each conversion point.
Anchor deposits and withdrawals bridge Stellar to fiat — FX conversion applies
Anchor services like Circle connect Stellar to traditional payment rails. Depositing USD to receive USDC on Stellar is not a crypto disposal, but the receipt of USDC is a new asset acquisition at a cost basis equal to the USD deposited. Withdrawal is a redemption at face value with no gain. Wag3s handles both directions, matching the anchor transaction to the corresponding bank-side entry for reconciliation with your treasury's fiat ledger.
Stellar accounting questions
How is Stellar's native issuance different from ERC-20?
No smart contract is required. The issuer account creates the asset directly via a protocol operation. Audit-trail-wise, the issuer is always known and the asset's authority is unambiguous — cleaner for compliance use cases.
How is the XLM base reserve for trustlines treated on the balance sheet?
The XLM reserve required per trustline is a refundable protocol deposit, not an expense. Each 0.5 XLM reserve addition is recorded by Wag3s as a locked receivable — an asset that is returned to your spendable balance when the trustline is removed. Only the small base fee of the trustline transaction (0.00001 XLM) is booked as an operating expense, preventing reserve deposits from inflating your cost lines.
How does Wag3s handle multi-hop path payments with intermediate assets?
Stellar path payments atomically route through one or more intermediate assets on the SDEX before reaching the destination asset. Wag3s disaggregates each hop into a separate disposal and acquisition event, applying cost-basis tracking at each conversion point. This ensures that any gain or loss on intermediate hops is captured correctly, rather than collapsing the entire path payment into a single opaque transaction.
Other chain coverage and tax guides relevant to this network.
Book Stellar the right way
Free during Alpha. Connect a wallet, see every transaction reconciled to journal entries.