The Stellar Development Foundation announced pivotal executive appointments, attracting top talent from major fintech firms. José Fernández da Ponte, formerly of PayPal, joins Stellar to lead growth initiatives, bringing a wealth of experience from launching PYUSD, PayPal’s stablecoin. Jason Karsh, with strategic roles at Block, Coinbase, and Blockchain.com, will head Stellar’s marketing efforts, focusing on enhancing the brand and ecosystem visibility. These hirings underscore Stellar’s ambition to lead in real-world asset tokenization and cross-border solutions. Following these announcements, Stellar’s native token, XLM, saw a significant 80% price surge. Additionally, the integration of over $446 million worth of tokenized U.S. Treasuries by Franklin Templeton on Stellar highlights the protocol’s robust position in real-world asset protocol adoption. Stellar is now the third-ranking protocol in this space.