This submission introduces two new services, designed to connect traditional finance/card-payments with on-chain liquidity while allowing non-crypto merchants to become part of the Stellar ecosystem without even realizing it.

Both features will be impossible to build without Stellar capabilities, because its unique combination of low fees, high throughput, and Soroban’s smart-contract composability allows Aion-fi to process and settle fiat-based payments with the precision and speed required for a high-frequency transactions/events yield protocol. Every merchant advance, repayment, and yield event relies on Stellar’s ability to record transactions instantly and cost-efficiently, maintaining transparency for all participants. This architecture transforms complex financial flows into verifiable on-chain operations, ensuring liquidity efficiency, traceability, and predictable performance, qualities that make Stellar not just a network choice but the foundation that makes this entire model economically and technically viable.

Merchant Advance Service: Bringing Off-Chain Payments to Stellar:

This service allows merchants to receive instant advances on their credit and debit card sales, using their future receivables as collateral. Every advance interacts directly with the Stellar network

Advance Card Payment Flow:

When a cardholder’s card payment is approved by conomyhq’s PSP, an event triggers a Soroban smart contract on Stellar, requesting the equivalent amount in local currency from the liquidity pool. The FX rate between USDC and local currencies is anchored daily to market data, ensuring transparent and provable valuation. Once executed, a Stellar transaction transfers the USDC to an off-ramp provider, converting it into local currency and depositing it instantly into the merchant’s account. Each transaction (advance, repayment, and yield distribution) is recorded, automated, and validated on-chain by Soroban smart contracts, turning traditional card payments into programmable, auditable blockchain operations connected to real-world. This flow bridges traditional finance with decentralized infrastructure, making every off-chain payment a verifiable, yield-bearing on-chain asset powered by Stellar’s low fees, speed, and reliability.

Card Payment Settlement Process:

When the merchant’s card payment is settled to conomyhq’s PSP, the corresponding on-chain process is initiated. A Stellar transaction transfers the equivalent USDC amount from the PSP’s treasury account to Aion-fi’s liquidity pool, completing the repayment stage. Soroban smart contracts then allocate and distribute these funds across active participants, transferring proportional yield to their wallets. This structure ensures that every fiat-based settlement directly powers transparent, provable on-chain yield distribution within Stellar’s network.

Through this process, each merchant becomes an active participant in the Stellar network, even without understanding crypto or managing wallets. Stellar operates in the background, handling liquidity, transaction settlement, and currency conversion, while merchants experience a simple, fiat-native product.

Impact:

This service expands Stellar’s real-world adoption by turning traditional merchants into indirect crypto users. It strengthens Aion-fi’s merchant base, generates sustainable yield for the protocol, and at the same time helps fiat-based merchants with their cashflow, which has a significant impact on financial inclusion, boosting their potential economic growth. 

Why Stellar:

This solution requires multiple continuous transactions associated with multiple operations between participants. Additionally, the highest risk factor on Aion-fi financial model is related to FX volatility, so in order to control that we’ll implement a micropayment flow strategy for each sale of each merchant. So for those reasons, gas fee efficiency is essential to avoid reducing participant performance, which is why Stellar's efficiency provides us with a key factor impossible to recreate in any other network.

Investor Liquidity and Yield Platform:

For participants and investors, we offer a seamless web platform that connects verified fiat-based payments with on-chain liquidity through Soroban smart contracts. Every deposit, allocation, and yield event is traceable, automated, and transparent. Unlike speculative lending models, each position is backed by a verified card payment captured through a regulated PSP (conomyhq), anchoring repayment to verifiable payment data rather than self-declared behavioral financial records.

Tokenized Participation and Yield

Each merchant advance becomes a receivable, tokenized as a participation right within the liquidity pool. When a merchant’s card payment is authorized or captured, an on-chain event requests liquidity from the pool in USDC. Once the funds are settled to conomyhq’s PSP, a repayment is triggered, and Soroban smart contracts distribute yield proportionally among participants, maintaining transparent and auditable accounting. This process links every return to a specific, verifiable transaction, It transforms ordinary card payments into programmable, yield-generating assets on-chain.

Risk Control and Fair Distribution

Exposure is diversified across multiple merchants and payment events, reducing reliance on any single participant. Risk management is strengthened through 3DS authentication, and the PSP controls settlement flows, and each merchant’s historical payment performance, ensuring operational consistency and lowering exposure to chargebacks. Yield allocation is executed per transaction, guaranteeing that every return corresponds to verifiable, auditable performance rather than projected assumptions. This design ensures fairness and transparency for all participants while maintaining a predictable and auditable flow of funds.

Security and Transparency

All financial operations (advances, repayments, and yield distributions) are executed through Soroban smart contracts, ensuring they execute deterministically. Every process is verifiable, immutable, and auditable, providing full transparency and deterministic trust. Stellar’s predictable fees and high transaction efficiency make continuous micro-settlements possible while maintaining precision, traceability, and economic consistency.

Access and Identity Layer

Participants undergo KYC verification and connect via Stellar-compatible wallets to deposit and withdraw USDC. A non-transferable NFT credential acts as both an access key and a proof of compliance, providing identity continuity for governance and future participation. This approach ensures that all users operate under a unified, secure, and compliant structure. It integrates regulatory transparency with blockchain-native identity, reinforcing trust and enabling seamless participation in the protocol’s ecosystem.

Pricing Model

Merchants pay a single transparent fee based on each card payment advanced. This fee is converted directly into investor yield, while a small portion is retained by the protocol for operational costs. All allocations, performance data, and yield metrics are fully visible through the investor dashboard, ensuring clarity, accountability, and trust among participants.

Impact

Aion-fi transforms off-chain commerce into verifiable on-chain yield, expanding financial access for small businesses while generating sustainable returns for participants. Merchants receive instant liquidity in local currency without touching crypto, while investors earn yield backed by genuine payments. This model fosters financial inclusion, transparency, and trust,  connecting blockchain technology with the tangible economy.

Why Stellar

Stellar provides the efficiency, scalability, and deterministic behavior that make this model viable. Its predictable fees enable continuous micro-settlements, while Soroban smart contracts guarantee accuracy and reliability in execution. This efficiency turns Stellar from a supporting layer into the core infrastructure enabling real yield at scale.

Maybe in the future, but not in this submission

$146.5K

Success for Aion-fi will be defined by measurable impact on small merchants, new user adoption for the Stellar network, and tangible value creation for liquidity participants. Our goal is to prove that Stellar can power real-world financial inclusion at scale by moving traditional card payment flows on-chain.

1. Merchant Impact and Financial Inclusion

In the first twelve months, Aion-fi aims to support more than 550 merchants in Chile by providing instant advances on their card payments. On average, each merchant processes around 2,200 USD per week in card sales. By shifting from T+3 settlement times to T0, these merchants collectively unlock more than 18 million USD in working capital over the first year.

Currently, other PSPs and acquirers offer advances to this type of business, but they charge 4% per sale for processing, including the advance. At Aion_fi, the charge, including processing plus the advance, is 3.2%, which is 0.8% cheaper per advance payment. We can quantify this difference by multiplying the differential by the estimated total amount processed for the first year (USD 18 million). We can indicate that in its first 12 months, Aion_fi will contribute more than USD 144,000 to the financial development of businesses. This represents direct savings and cash flow relief for small businesses that often rely on informal or expensive credit to stay afloat. The social impact is clear: more stable operations, timely payments to suppliers, and less financial stress for entrepreneurs who would otherwise need to “juggle cash” to survive.

2. Onboarding New Users to the Stellar Network and Network Activity

Every merchant we onboard becomes a new user on Stellar. With 550 merchants using the protocol in the first year, we expect to introduce at least 550 new non-crypto businesses to the Stellar network. Each merchant will operate through our settlement accounts and dashboards, directly interacting with USDC on Stellar. This expands Stellar’s reach beyond traditional crypto users and demonstrates its usability for everyday commercial purposes. Each advance will represent approximately 10 transactions on the Stellar network. Considering this, Aion_fi will bring almost 6 million new transact for the Stellar network on the first 12 months of operation. These transactions represent genuine economic activity, real payments connected to the Visa and Mastercard ecosystems flowing directly through Stellar.

3. Yield and Rewards for Participants

Liquidity providers funding these merchant advances will earn an estimated 23.3 percent annualized yield (APY). With a total pool size of 352,000 USD for the first year, total rewards distributed to participants are projected at around 83,000 USD annually. These earnings will be transparently generated and settled on Stellar, showcasing a sustainable and transparent DeFi yield model fully backed by real-world receivables.

4. Broader Ecosystem Impact

By the end of the first year, success will mean:

• 550 merchants operating on Stellar through Aion-fi (new non-crypto users integrated into the network).

• 18 million USD in working capital unlocked for small businesses.

• 144,000 USD in avoided financing costs.

• 6 million new Stellar transactions generated annually.

• Over 83,000 USD paid in rewards to liquidity participants.

For participants, it means real yield backed by productive assets. For Stellar, it means thousands of real economic transactions moving across the network every day, driven by businesses that had never touched blockchain before.

In short, success for Aion-fi is not theoretical. It is measurable, inclusive, and visible directly on-chain: more merchants growing, more users joining Stellar, more transactions flowing, and more value created for everyone involved.

Our go-to-market strategy focuses on two main fronts: merchants who request advances and participants who provide liquidity. The launch will begin in Chile, where Conomy HQ, our regulated PSP, will act as both the first merchant distribution channel and the initial liquidity provider. By starting with our own capital, we show real commitment and inspire confidence among future participants. The plan unfolds in three phases that emphasize concrete actions, measurable results, and responsible growth.

On all growth phases we plan to establish a continuous communication using Aion-fi X account and Discord Channel to establish a close relationship with all members of the community and to publish all the news regarding Aion-fi and our achievements to position Aion-fi as a benchmark for end-user applications generating interest, with very low risk and no friction for the Stellar community, Web3, and institutional investors.

Phase 1: Pilot Launch (Months 1 - 3)

During the first stage, we will validate the model with a small number of real users on both sides of the marketplace. Through Conomy’s existing merchant network, we will onboard 20 pilot merchants who already process card payments with us. These merchants will receive instant advances on their card sales, giving them immediate access to working capital.

The first liquidity pool will be funded entirely by Conomy. This approach allows us to operate without external dependency while signaling full alignment of interests. Our capital will be the first in the pool, proving that we trust the system we built. 

At the same time, we will invite the Stellar community and Web3 participants to join the pool for the next stage. Early contributors (on stage 2) will receive special rewards such as yield bonuses without of any Protocol fee and loyalty recognition NFTs.

At this stage all the marketing efforts will be community-driven rather than paid and focus on the next stage. We plan to host an open session with the Stellar community, share progress in Discord developer channels, and release educational content that explains how merchant receivables can be tokenized through Stellar. 

By the end of the pilot, we aim to have 20 active merchants, Conomy as the only participant, and approximately 178,000 USD in total advances (daily advances would be like 6,400 USD).

Concrete actions:

• Product launch with Conomy’s liquidity.

• Onboard the first 20 merchants to start advancing their payments. For this onboarding

• Activate Aion-fi’s X, Discord, and Youtube accounts with the public launch and measurable results.

• Start adding Stellar community people on the waiting list for the next stage using our landing page and social media accounts.

Phase 2: Growth and Partnerships (Months 4 - 6)

After the pilot, the focus will shift to scaling within Chile. We plan to reach 50 or more active merchants, targeting high-volume sectors such as e-commerce, hospitality, and tourism. A referral program will encourage early merchants to invite others, and we will begin conversations with other PSPs and acquirers interested in embedding our solution into their own merchant services for the next stage.

On the liquidity side, we will strengthen the pool through the early adopters registered at the last stage. They will have extra yield because theirs yield will not be reduce for the protocol’s fee and also will get a NFT as recognition as Aion-fi early adopters. We expected to introduce between 50 to 100 early adopters. 

All the extra capital required by the pool at this stage will be supported directly by Conomy in any of next situations: (a) if the merchant base exceeds the capital requirement provided by participants or; (b) if the total capital of the participants do not enough to cover the capital needs of all the merchants. All of that it’s in order to optimize the performance of the protocol.

At this stage we plan to start conversations and stablish partnerships with Stellar wallets, exchanges, and DeFi projects that want to feature our investment opportunity to their users for the next stage of our go to market plan. These collaborations will expand awareness and access while maintaining transparency through our investor dashboard. We will also introduce retention benefits for liquidity providers who remain active, such as tiered yield levels or participation badges.

Content marketing will highlight real stories of merchants who improved their cash flow through Aion-fi and of investors earning consistent returns. By the end of this phase, we expect to have 50 merchants, and 50 participants (just the early adopters), and the total advance volumes close to half of million dollars. 

Also on the end of this stage we expected on the participants side to had close partnership with a Stellar wallet, exchange, or DeFi project, and on the merchant side to had close a partnership with a PSP or an Acquirer. All of that it’s in to expand our scope in a fast and consistent way.

Concrete actions:

• Onboard 50 new merchants to start advancing their payments. For this onboarding we’ll use the actual merchant base of Conomy’s PSP.

• Mantain communication on Aion-fi’s X, Discord, and Youtube accounts with messages about Aion-fi brand, showing the end user application, telling the story of real merchants using the advances proportioned by Aion-fi and publishing our measurable results.

• Activate a new Discord sub channel to have one on one communication with the 50 to 100 Stellar community people who got selected as early adopter to know any detail about their experience and implement a continuous improvement.

• Start conversations with multiple Stellar wallets, exchanges, and DeFi projects owners (or growth managers) to present them Aion-fi and close a partnership with a least one of them for the next stage.

• Start conversations with Other PSP and aquirers who also operate in Chile and need a solution to offer payment advance to theirs merchant base.

Phase 3: Partnerships and stablishment (Months 7 - 12)

After the growth stage Aion-fi will be ready to explote. Considering the closed partnerships on the participants side and also on the merchant side we could accelerate our rhythm of growth to the next level.

On the merchant side with the PSP alliance we expect to add new 500 merchants reaching 550 in total. And with the Stellar Wallet partnership we expect to add new 250k USDC of AUM to increase the total volume available to allocate.

As the platform matures, we will begin onboarding institutional investors such as DeFi funds, fintech venture firms, and family offices seeking stable, asset-backed yield. We will use our operational data from the past phases to demonstrate performance and reliability. While attracting institutional capital, we will continue to welcome individual contributors, ensuring inclusivity within the ecosystem for next stages.

At the same time, we will refine the product by automating PSP integrations, simplifying onboarding, and improving the investor experience. We plan to remain active in the Stellar ecosystem, sharing results and lessons that highlight Stellar’s role in bridging traditional finance and DeFi. By the end of the first year, our goal is to have a solid presence in Chile, close more PSP and Wallet partnerships in order to expand our own scope of participants and merchants.

At the end of this stage we expect to attend 550 merchants with a total volume of advances over than 17 million USD.

Concrete actions:

• Onboard 500 new merchants to start advancing their payments. For this onboarding we’ll use the actual merchant base of Conomy’s PSP plus an extra merchant base who come from a PSP alliance.

• Onboard at least one Stellar wallet, exchange, liquidity providor platform or Defi project who helps us to achieve more liquidity.

• Free the entrance of new participants (at this stage will not just for the early adopters), so we offer a new discord chanel for free public access.

• Mantain communication on Aion-fi’s X, Discord, and Youtube accounts with messages about Aion-fi brand, showing the end user application, new alliances, telling stories of real merchants using the advances proportioned by Aion-fi and publishing our measurable results.

• Maintain the Discord sub channel with the early adopters to have one on one communication with the 50 to 100 Stellar community people.

• Mantain conversations with different Stellar wallets, exchanges, and DeFi projects owners (or growth managers) to close a partnership to get more liquidity.

Summary

This go-to-market plan focuses on credibility, community, and measurable growth rather than heavy marketing spend. By leveraging Conomy’s PSP infrastructure and starting with our own capital, we can move fast and responsibly. Each phase validates the model before scaling it, ensuring that every step strengthens trust and performance, and also every stage prepare the next one. Through this strategy, Aion-fi will focus more on partnerships and alliances than paid growth. In this way we strongly believe that we could contribute more to the ecosystem and at the same time we could focus on the product, generate strong and low risk yield and offer the best experience for our users and merchants.

Some previous relevant information:

• Between 2018 till end of 2019 Felipe, our CTO, developed and launched Inditex’s (zara.com) checkout globally. Was then when he got a fully understanding about how card payment flow works in a global way.

• In 2020, on Conomy We started to develop payment solutions using card payment rails. And we issue our first mastercard payment card.

• In 2022 We launched the first mastercard supporting USDC in Chile. For regulatory issues we’ve forced to close it down.

• In 2023 We started offering yield in a mobile app using USDC across multiple ERC-20 protocols. To our surprise, even with an APY of 7%, that product didn’t get so much attention from our users, so we decided to develop and introduce for the Chilean market the first protocol available to generate Yield in Chilean pesos. This protocol was made using ERC-20.

• In 2024 we started to operate an international payment rail using stablecoin, connecting with multiples Anchors (on and off ramps) in different countries in order to deliver international payment with a fast and safe experience and at the same time super competitive prices, this solutions operates in 8 different countries.

• In 2025 we’ve participated in Stellar x Draper University cohort, living in San Francisco for one month and learning a lot about Stellar. There we implemented SEP-9, SEP-12 and SEP-20 in our international payment core.

• In 2025 we launched our PSP solution who mix crypto international transactions with traditional visa and mastercard payments for the chilean market.

AION-FI traction evidence:

On those previous experience we’ve learned a lot about payments, including traditional ones like visa payments and also crypto payments. And also on the other hand about tokenization and Web3 protocols.

The combination of those three different areas made us realize that exist a huge difference between crypto payments with instant settle and card payments with traditionally t+2 to t+3 settle (in some countries of LATAM the settlement process of card payments takes even 30 days). Just using logic we figure out that this slow settlement process generate so much effort for the merchants who needs the money fast for his business cash flow. But we need to validate it.

To fully validate we follow this methodology, and here you could check all the results from the survey.

Additional traction evidence:

• We’ve participated in several top-tier programs that helped validate and accelerate both our B2C and B2B strategies in Startup Chile (Build, Ignite, and Growth programs).

• We've been invested by:

  • ChileVentures

  • Plug&Play

  • Rhombuz VC

• We've participate on Draper x Stellar (2025 Cohort).

• Our work has been recognized by leading global organizations and media outlets, reflecting the impact and relevance of our financial infrastructure in Latin America:

  • Circle Partner (2024–present)

  • Forbes Top 100 Startups (2024)

  • 11:FS Fintech Awards Finalist (2024)

  • F6S Ranking (2025)

For more details you could check here.

Brief description:

The MVP establishes the protocol’s operational foundation. It connects ConomyHQ’s PSP with the Aion-Fi backend and Soroban contracts to complete the full merchant advance → repayment → yield flow in a controlled environment.

How to measure completion:

• The end-to-end lifecycle (advance, settlement, yield) executes successfully in sandbox.

• PSP webhook and signature validation work deterministically.

• The FX oracle publishes daily anchored rates on-chain.

• The Bridge Gateway relays verified payloads to Soroban contracts.

• Investors can view real transaction data and provisional yield metrics.

Estimated completion:

End of Month 3.

Budget:

72,750 USD

Brief description:

This phase migrates to Stellar Testnet and connects real PSP data streams with verified KYC identities. It tests the interoperability, transparency, and efficiency of every component.

How to measure completion:

• Settlements from ConomyHQ are mirrored on-chain in near real time.

• The Bridge Listener maintains < 5 s synchronization delay.

• KYC and NFT identity minting are operational.

• The Testnet dashboard displays yield distribution per transaction.

Estimated completion:

End of Month 5.

Budget:

48,500 USD

Brief description:

The final phase moves Aion-Fi into production on Stellar Mainnet, focusing on stability, compliance, and full user transparency.

FX anchoring, yield distribution, and wallet continuity operate automatically under real market conditions.

How to measure completion:

• All contracts deployed and verified on Stellar Mainnet.

• The first investor yield claim processed successfully on-chain.

• Settlement flows from ConomyHQ fully reconciled with anchored FX rates.

Estimated completion:

End of Month 6.

Budget:

25,250 USD

I'm Pablo CEO and with Felipe co-founder & CTO, we were the first in chile to launch:

1. Crypto card (q1 2022)

2. Crypto yielding account (q3 2023)

3. And also we were the first in tokenization of a chilean fund to offer yielding in chilean pesos.

Felipe, my co founder and conomy_hq's CTO sell his first strartup in Germany on 2018. There he discovered the fintech, payment and crypto world. He started to developing in web3 6 years ago. And he was the one to lead the development and the implementation of the shopping cart and the check-out world wild to Inditex group (mostly known as Zara.com)
Tomas, our technical lead has more than 5 years developing in web 3 and more than 7 years in digital payment developing.
And Fredy, our front end developer, has more than 5 years on digital payment platforms and more than 8 in front end developing.

Me on my side, I'm an economist, with no relevant technical expertise. My strength is handling the crypto industry (and crypto solutions) more as a business than on the technical side. By understanding much of the traditional finance and payment system, I understand very well where there are gaps that using crypto can take advantage of.

Linkedin:

• Felipe's https://www.linkedin.com/in/pipe-garcia/

• Tomas's https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasgomezm/

• Fredy's https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredy-puente-escobar-103921141/

• Pablo's https://www.linkedin.com/in/pacunaf/