Stellar Adds MoneyGram, Figure, and Range as New Tier 1 Validators

Three Industry Names Join Stellar's Validator Core

The Stellar Development Foundation (@StellarOrg) has added three new organizations to its Tier 1 validator set: @MoneyGram, @Figure, and @range_org. The additions bring together institutions spanning global money movement, capital markets, and blockchain security infrastructure, deepening the network's decentralization at its most consequential layer.

Tier 1 organizations bear the safety and liveness of the Stellar network, meaning most other validators on the network require agreement from them to commit to a new ledger. The role is not self-appointed. To become a Tier 1 organization, a team must convince enough other organizations to trust them. Each Tier 1 member is also required to run three geographically dispersed full validators to ensure redundancy in the event that one node goes offline.

The new entrants bring real-world institutional weight. @MoneyGram has long been embedded in Stellar's payments ecosystem, using the network to process cross-border remittances. MGUSD, its dollar-pegged stablecoin issued via Stripe's Bridge, connects digital dollars to roughly 500,000 physical cash locations in MoneyGram's global remittance network. @Figure is a fintech firm active in capital markets, issuing YLDS, a yield-bearing dollar asset, on the Stellar network. @range_org adds blockchain security infrastructure expertise to the group.

Why the Expansion Matters for $XLM

The move is part of a broader push by SDF to raise the number of Tier 1 organizations and improve the network's fault tolerance. Since April 2025, there had been seven Tier 1 organizations, each operating three full validators, including Blockdaemon, Creit Technologies, Franklin Templeton, LOBSTR, Public Node, SatoshiPay, and SDF. Adding three more organizations meaningfully expands the quorum and reduces the risk of a network halt caused by a small number of participants going dark.

Tier 1 organizations bear the safety and liveness of the Stellar network on their shoulders. That accountability is also what makes them attractive to institutions. Under the Stellar Consensus Protocol, there are no monetary rewards for validators, who operate the network via Proof-of-Agreement through a system of federated voting. Validators participate because they have a direct operational stake in the network's health, not because they earn block rewards.

SDF has emphasised that its approach to decentralization is not about maximizing node count, but fostering trust, mission alignment, and resilience in real-world scenarios. The profiles of @MoneyGram, @Figure, and @range_org reflect exactly that philosophy: each has an active business reason to want Stellar running reliably.

Validator nodes on Stellar increased 13% since year-end, and the latest additions signal that institutional participation in network infrastructure is accelerating alongside growing stablecoin and asset issuance activity on the chain.

Sources:
Stellar Docs: Tier 1 Organizations
Stellar Development Foundation: Q1 2026 Network Update
Messari: State of Stellar Q1 2026