Stellar unveils fee-free network that hit 7.02 million payments per second in early benchmarks

Stellar has unveiled a fee-free network that reached 7.02 million payments per second in early benchmarks. That figure came from eight machines running inside a single validator.

The more interesting detail is what the foundation has not settled. It says it has not yet decided how this new network will relate to Stellar itself, which leaves a fairly large question mark next to a fairly large number.

Seven million, with a few asterisks

Start with the benchmark. Early testing produced 7.02 million payments per second, spread across eight machines that together make up one validator.

Think of a validator as one checkpoint in a network of checkpoints. This test measured how fast a single, well-equipped checkpoint could process payments. It did not measure a sprawling global network where many independent operators must agree on every transaction.

The benchmark is also described as internal, and it has not yet appeared in public analytics. Until it does, outside observers have no independent way to verify it.

Then there is the fee-free part. Stellar’s existing network is already cheap, with transaction fees around $0.00012 during recent peak usage. Moving from “almost nothing” to “nothing” sounds minor, but it changes how high-volume payment businesses can model their costs.

How the current Stellar network stacks up

For context, Stellar’s live mainnet has been busy. On October 23, 2026, it processed approximately 14.16 million transactions in a single day.

That works out to an average of roughly 163.9 transactions per second. Activity peaked above 224 transactions per second the following day.

Much of the recent mainnet performance traces back to Protocol 28, nicknamed “Adapter,” which went live in September 2026. The upgrade let validators handle consensus more efficiently.

Shortly after the rollout, Stellar set a throughput record of 217.4 transactions per second across a 100-block window. Looking ahead, the theoretical maximum for future releases could exceed 3,000 transactions per second as enhancements continue.

The network also kept 99.99% uptime as volume climbed.

Why Stellar wants more capacity

Quarterly stablecoin transfer volumes on the network reached $25.1 billion.

Tokenized real-world assets, or RWAs, are growing too. These are traditional assets such as bonds or funds represented as tokens on a blockchain. Tokenized RWAs on Stellar reached a reported value of $3.4 billion to $4.1 billion as of late September and October 2026.

That growth has been driven largely by institutional inflows. The network’s user base appears to be shifting from small retail transfers toward larger financial applications.

What this means for Stellar and its users

The biggest open question is structural. The foundation has not decided how the new network will relate to Stellar, so it could end up as an extension of the existing chain, a parallel system, or something else entirely.

That uncertainty matters for anyone holding XLM, Stellar’s native token, or building on the network today. If the fee-free system operates separately, the value it creates may not flow back to the existing mainnet in obvious ways.

Fees are also part of the economics. On most blockchains, transaction fees help discourage spam and compensate the network. A fee-free design will presumably need some other mechanism to handle those jobs, and the foundation has not said what that might be.

The things to watch are concrete. First, whether the 7.02 million figure holds up once it is tested across multiple independent validators rather than a single one. Second, whether the benchmark gets published in a form that outside analysts can check.

Third, and most important, how the foundation ultimately decides to connect this network to Stellar. That decision will determine whether this is a major upgrade for the existing ecosystem or the start of a separate project that happens to share a name.