Key points

• Chainspect recorded a peak of 217.4 transactions per second over a 100-block window, beating the previous record of about 211 TPS set less than two weeks earlier.
• The Protocol 28 (Adapter) upgrade, activated in mid-September, introduced a consensus mechanism letting validators vote before a full transaction batch is delivered.
• Stellar ranked fourth globally for tokenised real-world asset value at $3.38 billion as of 27 September, behind Ethereum, BNB Chain and Solana.
• Its 72 active RWA projects average $47 million each, against $5.7 million on Ethereum and $1.4 million on Solana.
• Stablecoins with a $437.73 million market capitalisation on Stellar generate $9.44 billion in monthly transfer volume.

Stellar has broken its all-time transaction speed record, reaching a peak of 217.4 transactions per second over a 100-block window, according to the analytics tracker Chainspect. The previous record of roughly 211 TPS had stood for less than two weeks. Chainspect said the surge came from a real influx of institutional capital rather than artificial stress tests.

The main technical driver 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, removing minor delays during peak demand. An update to the Soroban smart contract platform also improved its handling of large data sets.

Data on the tokenised real-world asset market helps explain the new performance record. As of 27 September, Stellar ranked fourth worldwide by RWA value with $3.38 billion, behind Ethereum at $16.54 billion, BNB Chain at $5.67 billion and Solana at $4.35 billion. The composition of that capital differs sharply from its competitors: Stellar has just 72 active RWA projects, giving an average value per project of $47 million, against $5.7 million on Ethereum and $1.4 million on Solana.

Record throughput on Stellar

U.Today reports that Stellar has effectively become a specialised platform for large institutional holdings. The main transaction flow taxing Soroban smart contracts and pushing the network to record speeds comes from tokenised government bonds and European treasury instruments. More than a third of the network's total RWA value sits in the Spiko Amundi Overnight Swap Fund (EUR) at $1.16 billion. Other major holdings include Ondo U.S. Dollar Yield at $536 million and Franklin Templeton's tokenised BENJI bonds at $431 million, with concurrent yield accrual, issuance and redemption operations driving current throughput higher.

A second factor is high stablecoin turnover. Despite a modest $437.73 million market capitalisation on Stellar, monthly transfer volume reaches $9.44 billion, indicating continuous use in real cross-border payments.

According to Chainspect, Stellar consistently processes 120 to 180 TPS in real time, well ahead of Ethereum's roughly 20 TPS. Its new peak of 217.4 TPS remains below the record figures for Solana or Aptos, which exceed 11,000 TPS. With a theoretical ceiling of 3,351 TPS, the network is operating at less than 10% of its capacity.

Institutional RWA holdings

Rather than racing for the highest possible throughput, the platform offers businesses fixed fees of $0.0001 and near-instant settlement finality of around five seconds, a key requirement for the traditional finance sector. The record suggests Stellar's pitch to institutional issuers is translating into measurable on-chain activity.

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