Stellar Unveils Fee-Free Network with 7.02 Million Transactions Per Second

Stellar has introduced a fee-less network, which in early tests reached 7.02 million payments per second. This figure was achieved on eight machines, collectively forming one validator. A validator is a single control node of the network, so the test measured the speed of one well-equipped node, not a distributed network where independent operators agree on each transaction. The benchmark is described as internal and has not yet appeared in public analytics, so it cannot be independently verified.

The existing Stellar network is already inexpensive: fees were about $0.00012 at peak load. The transition from 'almost nothing' to 'nothing' may seem insignificant, but it changes how high-load payment businesses model costs.

On October 23, 2026, the main network processed about 14.16 million transactions in one day—averaging approximately 163.9 transactions per second, and the next day activity exceeded 224. A significant part of the performance is associated with Protocol 28 'Adapter', launched in September 2026: the update allowed validators to process consensus more efficiently. Shortly after launch, Stellar set a record of 217.4 transactions per second on a 100-block window, and the theoretical maximum of future versions could exceed 3000. The network maintained 99.99% uptime as volume increased.

Quarterly stablecoin transfer volumes reached $25.1 billion. Real-world tokenized assets grew to $3.4–4.1 billion by the end of September and October 2026. Growth was mainly driven by institutional inflows.

The main question is structural. The Stellar Foundation has not decided how the new network will be linked to Stellar: it could become a chain extension, a parallel system, or something else. This is important for XLM holders: if the fee-less system operates separately, the value it creates may not return to the main network. Fees on most blockchains deter spam and compensate for network operation; a different mechanism will be needed for a fee-less network, but the foundation has not stated what it will be.

Three things are worth watching: whether the 7.02 million will hold up when tested on multiple independent validators; whether the benchmark will be published in a verifiable form; and how the foundation will decide to link the new network to Stellar. This will determine whether it becomes a major ecosystem update or the beginning of a separate project, merely coinciding in name.