Stellar Wins MetaMask Default Slot and Curve's First Non-EVM Build

Stellar just had a very good week in Lisbon. The Defiant was on the ground at Meridian 2026, the StellarOrg conference that took over Convento do Beato for two days of talk about payments, stablecoins and tokenization.

The headline grab: MetaMask made Stellar a default network. That puts the chain in front of the wallet's user base without anyone having to dig through a settings menu first. For a network that has spent years pitching itself as payments infrastructure, distribution is the whole ballgame.

Curve Finance showed up too, launching its first integration outside the EVM world. Curve built its name on Ethereum and its clones, so crossing into a non-EVM chain is a genuine first for the protocol — and a signal that Stellar's pitch is landing with builders who normally don't look its way.

The Stellar Development Foundation used the stage to lay out a roadmap stretching to 2036. That's a decade-long horizon, an unusually long bet for an industry that usually thinks in quarters. It also frames the conference's themes — payments, stablecoins, tokenization — as the foundation's long game rather than a seasonal pivot.

Those three topics dominated the two days at Convento do Beato. Stablecoins and tokenization have become the default conversation at payments-focused crypto gatherings, and Stellar's event leaned into both while stacking announcements around them.

The takeaway from Lisbon is momentum on integrations rather than a single flashy reveal. MetaMask defaulting Stellar and Curve making its non-EVM debut give the network two concrete wins to point at as it sells that 2036 vision.