Stellar Development Foundation Makes Strategic Investment in Ascend to Accelerate Compliant RWA Infrastructure Development

Ascend and the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) today announced a strategic partnership to advance the development of compliance-first credit infrastructure for regulated real-world assets (RWAs) on the Stellar blockchains. Central to this partnership is a US $1 million direct investment support for Ascend, reinforcing both organizations' shared commitment to bringing institutional-grade, regulated assets onto public blockchain infrastructure in a manner that meets the compliance standards of traditional finance. Ascend is being built by PSG Digital Labs, the technology arm of PSG Digital, a globally licensed asset management and digital investment platform. The protocol is designed to provide the first compliant credit market infrastructure for onchain regulated RWA collateral, building on the identity-aware token standard ERC-3643. Unlike generic tokenization approaches, Ascend's infrastructure is architected from the ground up for regulated assets: enforcing eligibility and transfer controls at the asset layer. This approach enables tokenized assets to function as productive collateral in permissioned credit vaults, and connects institutional RWAs to DeFi liquidity without compromising regulatory posture. “Ascend is solving a critical gap in the market by building credit infrastructure purpose-built for regulated, real-world assets,” said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, President and Chief Growth Officer of the Stellar Development Foundation. “Their compliance-first approach aligns directly with how institutions actually operate, and that's what makes them a natural partner for the Stellar Development Foundation. This is how RWAs move from being issued onchain to being actively used across financial markets at scale."

"Stellar was built to be the settlement layer for institutional finance," said Dennis O’Connell, CTO of PSG Digital and Co-Founder of Ascend. "This partnership cements the commitment of both our organizations to build infrastructure that supports identity-aware issuance, permissioned credit mechanics, and deterministic resolution on a network that was designed for exactly this purpose."

A Partnership Built on Structural Alignment

The strategic rationale for this partnership is straightforward: both Ascend and the SDF are building towards a world where regulated institutional assets operate on public blockchain infrastructure with the same reliability and compliance standards as traditional finance.

The Stellar network was purpose-built for fast, low-cost settlement and real-world asset tokenization, with existing institutional relationships including Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, and Paxos. Ascend brings to Stellar a standards-first approach to onchain credit infrastructure: compliant tokenization via the ERC-3643 standard, permissioned credit vaults with oracle-verified collateral monitoring, and a Distressed Disposal Facility (DDF) providing institutional-grade liquidation and resolution.

Together, the partnership extends Ascend's regulated asset infrastructure to the Stellar network, enabling ERC-3643-standard assets originating on Stellar to access Ascend's permissioned vault and credit framework — and in doing so, establishing a shared foundation for compliant institutional finance on public blockchains.

About Ascend:

Ascend Protocol is PSG Digital's standards-first protocol for regulated real-world assets on Ethereum. It is designed to support identity-aware issuance using the ERC-3643 standard, which allows eligibility and transfer rules to be enforced at the asset layer, and permissioned credit mechanisms intended to connect regulated assets to onchain liquidity under explicit controls.

Learn more at: https://www.psg-digital.com/ascend-protocol

Stellar Development Foundation

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is a non-profit organization focused on working with and supporting changemakers to create equitable access to the global financial system through blockchain technology. SDF provides grants, investments, funding, and other awards to builders and organizations. SDF also develops resources and tooling on the Stellar network to help unlock real world utility. As a nonprofit foundation, SDF puts the health of the Stellar network and the Stellar ecosystem and its mission above all else. For more information, visit https://stellar.org/foundation.