Stellar Activates Protocol 28 as Network Hits 211 TPS

Stellar activated Protocol 28 on Sept. 17 after a mainnet vote the day before. The upgrade introduces atomic contract-fleet management and new consensus tools. Around the same time the network recorded a sustained throughput of about 211 transactions per second measured across 100 consecutive blocks. Tokenized real-world assets on the chain were about $3.3 billion.

Protocol 28 implements three protocol changes. CAP-85 lets many instances of the same Soroban contract reference a single externally managed executable. Changing that shared reference updates all linked contracts to new code in one atomic operation, shortening the period when some instances run older code. Use of the reference-based model is optional and requires developers to opt in.

CAP-86 adds sparse-map functions to ease schema migrations for live contracts. The functions allow stored records to accept missing or extra fields, so developers can update on-chain data gradually instead of forcing immediate conformity to a new schema.

CAP-83 introduces consensus changes that let validators make progress on parts of the consensus process without waiting for complete transaction sets and that allow late or invalid sets to be discarded. Parallel transaction-set downloading is being enabled gradually, and the reported 211 TPS reflects features being rolled out rather than only the Protocol 28 activation.

Economic activity on Stellar has grown. Stablecoin supply on the network is near $884 million. Decentralized finance total value locked reached a record of about $319 million in August before easing to roughly $294 million. Tokenized real-world assets account for about $3.3 billion of on-chain value.

Contract-management features require teams to opt in and consensus improvements are being phased. Adoption depends on developer and validator uptake. The mainnet vote to activate Protocol 28 took place a day before the release. Network participants will monitor how quickly major issuers and Soroban-based applications migrate to the new contract model and use the migration functions.

XLM rose about 4% near the activation, trading around $0.1863 before moving closer to $0.18. There is no direct evidence linking the price change to the upgrade.