Stellar adds MoneyGram, Figure, and Range as Tier 1 validators

The Stellar Development Foundation quietly upgraded its network’s backbone on July 16, 2026, adding MoneyGram, Figure Markets, and Range as Tier 1 validators. The integration is expected to wrap up by mid-August 2026.

Tier 1 status on Stellar is not a ceremonial title. These validators sit at the top of the trust hierarchy inside the Stellar Consensus Protocol, and they are expected to operate multiple geographically distributed nodes, maintain uptime of 99.9% or better, publish complete history archives, and coordinate on system upgrades.

What Tier 1 actually means

Stellar’s consensus model works differently from most blockchains you’ve heard of. Rather than paying validators through block rewards or transaction fees, the Stellar Consensus Protocol relies on a web of trusted peer relationships. Validators choose which other validators they trust, and the network reaches agreement through overlapping trust sets.

The practical consequence is that Tier 1 validators are running expensive infrastructure purely because they have a strategic stake in the network’s reliability. MoneyGram, Figure Markets, and Range are not doing this for yield. They’re doing it because a more reliable Stellar network is directly useful to their own business operations.

SDF’s Jose Fernandez da Ponte has emphasized the network’s suitability for regulated finance, and the choice of these three firms makes that positioning concrete rather than aspirational.

Who these firms are and why they matter

MoneyGram is the easiest to contextualize. The company has been partnered with Stellar since 2021, and its customer base spans over 60 million people across more than 200 countries.

Figure Markets specializes in regulated yield-bearing asset issuance, including its YLDS stablecoin. Its presence as a Tier 1 validator is essentially a bet that Stellar becomes the preferred settlement layer for tokenized financial instruments.

Range is the least household-name of the three but arguably the most technically credentialed for this specific role. The firm monitors and secures assets across more than 200 networks, with over $30 billion under its watch.

Why this matters beyond the press release

Stellar’s Tier 1 set has historically been dominated by organizations directly affiliated with or closely aligned to the SDF. Adding three external firms with real commercial operations changes the network’s fault-tolerance profile in a meaningful way. Geographic distribution increases, the variety of operational teams expands, and the network’s resilience to any single point of failure improves.

There’s also a signal embedded in the structure of this arrangement. These firms are running significant infrastructure with no financial reward from the protocol itself. That kind of commitment is self-selecting for organizations that view Stellar’s stability as a business necessity rather than a speculative opportunity.

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