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By Amulets
The problem.
Stablecoins are already a major dollar rail in Latin America. In Brazil, they represent 90% of the crypto volume; in Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, they account for more than half of exchange purchases.
The reason is simple: people use digital dollars to protect income from inflation, devaluation and currency controls.
Stablecoins solved dollar access. Daily banking still is not.
What Amulets is.
A live stablecoin neobank with card access: users hold dollar stablecoins and other crypto assets, swap supported assets in-app, spend from a dollar balance and deposit or withdraw through crypto rails.
Amulets was built with a global technical architecture from day one, while initially focusing its go-to-market strategy on Latin America.
In production today: real cardholders, USDC/USDT card settlement, in-app swaps for major cryptos, multichain (Base, BSC, Polygon, Ethereum, Solana) deposits and withdrawals, rewards, cryptoback and BSA/AML controls.
Custodial by design: customer assets are held 1:1, segregated from company funds, tracked per user, reconciled daily, and withdrawable on-chain.
Amulets is available on the App Store, Google Play, and as a Telegram App.
What this grant builds. This grant makes Stellar a core settlement rail for Amulets: users will fund, hold, spend, earn rewards, and cash out with money movement settling on Stellar, by composing official Stellar building blocks and partners.
$110.0K
The traction metrics below are based on Amulets production data, as documented in the supporting Data Annex. June 2026 figures are presented as a monthly run-rate based on activity through June 10.
Live product with real users. Registered users grew from 2,274 in March 2026 to 3,771 by the end of May 2026, with 935 active financial users in the trailing 90 days.
Live and public. Published and downloadable at amulets.io and in the Apple App Store, Google Play and Telegram.
Compounding volume. Monthly processed volume (deposits, withdrawals, card spend and in-app trade) grew from US$161k in March to US$341k in May 2026, with the June run-rate near US$591k.
Real card usage. Card spend reached US$136k in May 2026 across 4,963 purchases, averaging about US$30, an everyday-spend size.
A distribution engine. Growth runs on a referral engine in Latam: a large share of users arrive through referral codes. Creators and referral rewards, paid by hand on Solana today, are what moves onto Stellar as XLM payouts.
Compliance in place. Full BSA/AML program (KYC, sanctions, transaction monitoring, Travel Rule).
Bootstrapped. Built and shipped without outside capital.
Public validation, product updates, creator demo, and community activity are available on Amulets’ X account: @amuletslabs.
TRANCHE 1 — MVP — US$ 22,000 (20%)
Definition of done. An existing customer can receive USDC and XLM into their Amulets account via Stellar, withdraw funds to external Stellar addresses, and use deposited USDC to fund card spending through Amulets. The full testnet flow will be available for reviewers to execute and validate independently, without assistance.
Estimated time: ~2 weeks.
Deliverables:
1. Custodial Stellar accounts and deposits (USDC and XLM) — US$ 12,000
Brief description: Per-user custodial Stellar accounts provisioned, with Amulets holding the keys server-side. USDC and XLM sent over the Stellar network land in the customer’s Amulets account; USDC credits the dollar balance, XLM is held as XLM.
How to measure completion: a reviewer signs in and sees a Stellar account and deposit address that resolves on Stellar Expert (testnet), then sends USDC and XLM testnet deposits; each is credited and linked to a Stellar testnet TX hash on Stellar Expert.
2. Withdrawals, monitoring, and reconciliation — US$ 9,800
Brief description: Customers withdraw USDC and XLM to an external Stellar address; deposits and withdrawals are detected, balances tracked in the Amulets core, and reconciled to the internal ledger.
How to measure completion: a reviewer withdraws USDC and XLM to a chosen testnet address (verifiable on Stellar Expert), and a reconciliation report matches each on-chain deposit and withdrawal, by its Stellar Expert TX hash, to the balance in the Amulets internal ledger.
3. Public demo video — US$ 200
Brief description: A demo video showing account creation and the USDC deposit and withdrawal flow on Stellar testnet.
How to measure completion: a published demo video link.
Note: Grant funds cover Stellar integration engineering only, not cashback, rewards, incentives, marketing, or operations.
TRANCHE 2 — TESTNET — US$ 33,000 (30%)
Definition of done. An existing user can swap XLM in-app against supported assets and stablecoins, choose to receive cashback and rewards in XLM, and fund their Amulets account through a fiat-to-USDC on-ramp powered by Bridge (sandbox) and Stellar. Additionally, Amulets integrates Stellar-USDC settlement flows with Rain (our BaaS partner), with settlement transactions funded from the Amulets treasury and reconciled against our internal ledger. The full testnet flow will be available for reviewers to execute and validate independently, without assistance.
Estimated time: ~4 weeks.
Deliverables:
1. In-app XLM swaps — US$ 6,000
Brief description: Users trade XLM in-app. XLM to USDC executes on Stellar's native DEX via a path payment across its order books and liquidity pools. Assets not native to Stellar (USDT, ETH, BNB, SOL) trade through a centralized exchange. XLM is held, not auto-converted.
How to measure completion: a reviewer trades XLM to USDC in-app on testnet/sandbox and sees the resulting balance, reconciled.
2. Rewards in XLM via the SDP (creator/referral, and cashback opt-in) — US$ 11,000
Brief description: Creator/referral rewards are paid in XLM through the Stellar Disbursement Platform; users opt in to receive rewards in XLM. Users will be able to opt to receive cashback in XLM.
How to measure completion: an SDP batch pays 10+ testnet accounts in XLM, each payout verifiable on Stellar Expert; the opt-in toggle works, and users can opt in to receive cashback in XLM through the in-app toggle.
3. Rain (BaaS partner) Stellar-USDC settlement integration (testnet/sandbox) — US$ 10,000
Brief description: Amulets integrates Rain's Soroban settlement contract, which settles card spend in USDC on Stellar in batches, funding settlements from the Amulets treasury and reconciling each batch to the internal ledger. Amulets does not build or deploy the contract.
How to measure completion: a simulated settlement batch is executed by Rain's Soroban contract in USDC on Stellar (testnet/sandbox), verifiable on Stellar Expert with a reconciliation record.
4. Bridge fiat-to-USDC on-ramp (sandbox) — US$ 6,000
Brief description: A Bridge sandbox on-ramp converts local currency (e.g., BRL) to USDC on Stellar and credits the Amulets account.
How to measure completion: a sandbox Bridge ramp credits USDC on Stellar to the test balance, verifiable on Stellar Expert.
Note: Cashback and rewards are already live in production. Grant funds are used exclusively for Stellar integration work and will not fund cashback, rewards, incentives, or token giveaways.
TRANCHE 3 — MAINNET — US$ 55,000 (50%)
Definition of done. Full mainnet integration is live: customers can deposit and withdraw USDC and XLM through their Amulets accounts via Stellar, swap XLM in-app against supported assets and stablecoins, opt in to receive cashback and rewards in XLM, and on/off-ramp between supported fiat currencies, such as BRL, and USDC through Bridge. Rain card settlement is live using USDC on Stellar, funded from the Amulets treasury and reconciled against the internal ledger.
Estimated time: ~3 weeks.
Deliverables:
1. Rain card settlement live on mainnet — US$ 12,000
Brief description: Card spend is settled in USDC on Stellar in batches by Rain’s Soroban settlement contract, funded from the Amulets treasury and reconciled to the internal ledger.
How to measure completion: real mainnet settlement batches executed by Rain’s Soroban contract in USDC on Stellar, verifiable on Stellar Expert and reconciled to the Amulets ledger.
2. Core Stellar flows live on mainnet: deposits, withdrawals, and in-app swaps (USDC and XLM) — US$ 18,000
Brief description: Real customers deposit and withdraw USDC and XLM on Stellar in production (USDC credits the dollar balance, XLM is held as XLM) and trade XLM in-app against supported assets and stablecoins.
How to measure completion: real mainnet deposits, withdrawals, and in-app XLM trades, with each on-chain Stellar transaction verifiable on Stellar Expert and reconciled.
3. Rewards in XLM via the SDP, live — US$ 11,000
Brief description: Cashback and creator/referral rewards are paid in XLM via the SDP to real users in production; opt-in live.
How to measure completion: recurring mainnet SDP batches paying real users in XLM, all verifiable on Stellar Expert.
4. BRL fiat on-ramp and off-ramp via Bridge — US$ 14,000
Brief description: Real BRL on-ramp (BRL to USDC on Stellar) and off-ramp (USDC on Stellar to BRL, to a Brazilian bank account) via Bridge, inside the Amulets account. Additional Latin American corridors may be added later.
How to measure completion: real BRL on-ramp and off-ramp transactions, with the USDC-on-Stellar leg verifiable on Stellar Expert.
Note: Cashback and rewards are already live in production. Grant funds are used exclusively for Stellar integration work and will not fund cashback, rewards, incentives, or token giveaways. No audit costs are included; security audit credits are provided as part of Tranche 3 completion.
Amulets is led by a lean team with experience across crypto, fintech, engineering, product and growth.
A bootstrapped team that designed, built, and shipped a live, custodial stablecoin spending product in Latin America, including multi-chain deposits and a full BSA/AML program, without outside capital.
Vinicius Frias, CEO, is a repeat crypto and fintech founder, with two previous exits in the sector. GitHub · LinkedIn
Samuel Camilo, CTO, BSc. in Computer Science, leads the core technology stack, including wallet infrastructure, card authorization, clearing, blockchain integrations and cloud architecture. GitHub · LinkedIn
Felipe Florencio, COO, PhD. Operations, compliance, and growth, including the referral and distribution engine and the regulatory posture. GitHub · LinkedIn
The broader team includes some part-time collaborators:
Samuel Camilo
Felipe Florencio
Vinicius Frias
No other submissions.