Balanced connects to Stellar

Balanced has arrived on the Stellar blockchain. You can now swap XLM for crypto on other chains, use it as collateral to borrow the bnUSD stablecoin, and transfer it to the ICON blockchain to supply liquidity.

Learn more about Balanced’s cross-chain DeFi offering and how you can use it on Stellar.

About the Stellar connection

Balanced is a cross-chain DeFi app designed for ease of use. Home to the bnUSD stablecoin and a decentralised exchange, it uses ICON’s cross-chain framework to connect to a diverse range of blockchains.

The Stellar connection unlocks a new collateral type for bnUSD, and makes Balanced accessible to a new audience. You can use Balanced to buy XLM with crypto from 9 other blockchains, which gives Stellar traders more flexibility in how they manage their assets.

Thanks to the economic enshrinement between Balanced and ICON and a grant from the Stellar Community Fund, $155k of XLM is available to trade at launch.

And the Stellar smart contracts have undergone an external audit for your protection – view the audit report (PDF) for the full details.

How to use Balanced on Stellar

You can use Balanced on Stellar to borrow bnUSD, swap crypto, and transfer cross-chain. Stellar transactions finalise in less than 60 seconds, and the transfer fee costs 0.1 XLM (~$0.05).

To get started, visit app.balanced.network.

Swap and transfer XLM cross-chain

You can use the Balanced Trade page to swap between assets on different blockchains, and transfer crypto to a supported chain.

Balanced provides a native cross-chain experience, so your crypto remains wrapper-free. You can use XLM on Stellar and ICON, and bnUSD is available everywhere.

Borrow bnUSD against XLM

You can deposit XLM as collateral on the Home page to borrow bnUSD. You can borrow up to 67% of the value for a 0.2% fee, and your debt will increase by 2% per year.

You can deposit XLM on Stellar or ICON, and borrow bnUSD on any supported chain. Loans are isolated, which means each collateral type (on every chain) has its own risk profile.

Supply XLM liquidity on ICON

If you connect an ICON wallet and add XLM and sICX to it, you can also supply liquidity to improve the trading experience. Liquidity pools earn 50% of the fee from each trade, and once cross-chain pools launch in January 2025, you can provide liquidity directly from Stellar.

How does the cross-chain connection work?

Balanced’s blockchain connections are powered by General Message Passing (GMP), a cross-chain messaging service that makes it seamless to interact between blockchains. GMP can relay messages using any interoperability protocol, and allows developers to use more than one protocol to reduce dependency on a single bridge.

GMP connects to a custom relay on Stellar, which uses multiple relays – each managed by a separate entity – to ensure a secure connection.

Balanced has already used GMP to connect to Arbitrum, Archway, Avalanche, Base, BNB Chain, Havah, Injective, Sui, and now Stellar. Connections to Solana, Optimism, Polygon, Stacks, and more will follow soon.

Transact cross-chain with Balanced

Balanced is a cross-chain DeFi hub, and it’s now available on Stellar.

To borrow, swap, and transfer cross-chain, visit app.balanced.network and sign in on your favourite blockchains.

To learn more about Balanced, check out the website, read the docs, and join the Balanced community on Discord.

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