Supporting Digital Dollars at Scale 

FRNT marks a milestone for digital asset innovation in the United States. Stable tokens are a type of cryptocurrency backed by the U.S. dollar, with the aim to make them less volatile than other cryptocurrencies. FRNT is designed to support faster, more efficient value transfer while maintaining the transparency and accountability expected of a public-sector issued asset.

“At the core of all this is trust,” said Mance Harmon, Co-Founder of Hedera. “Hedera technology provides the reliable foundation regulated industries need to innovate with confidence and reimagine how payments move across networks and borders.”

Hedera as a Leading Payments Network

Hedera is built to support payments applications with consistent performance, low and predictable fees, and enterprise-grade security. As stablecoins move towards real-world adoption, the underlying infrastructure must meet the standards required by regulated issuers, financial institutions, and payment providers.

“Hedera has emerged as a leader in real-world asset innovation, with the governance and performance needed for regulated use cases,” said Anthony Apollo, Wyoming Stable Token Commission Executive Director. “The launch of FRNT on Hedera highlights the role Hedera can play as a trusted network for digital payments.”

FRNT is available on Kraken, a Wyoming-based cryptocurrency exchange. Fireblocks underpins FRNT’s issuance and operations, and LayerZero supports cross-chain interoperability across networks. Users can purchase FRNT on supported networks and transfer it to other blockchains using the Stargate platform.

About Hedera

Hedera is the trust layer of the digital economy, providing fast, secure, and efficient distributed ledger technology (DLT) powered by its unique hashgraph technology. With an open-source ecosystem, predictable, low-cost fees, and carbon-negative operations, it equips developers with the tools to build scalable applications with real-world impact.

Governed by a diverse council of world-leading institutions, Hedera ensures transparent and fair decision-making. By driving innovation in DeFi, tokenization, AI, digital identity, and sustainable finance, it is shaping a more trusted, efficient, and inclusive digital future.

For more information, visit www.hedera.com, or follow us on X at @hedera or Linkedin. The Hedera whitepaper can be found at www.hedera.com/papers.

About Wyoming Stable Token Commission

Established in March 2023 under the Wyoming Stable Token Act, the Commission is tasked with the development, deployment, and management of Wyoming Stable Tokens that align with state laws and fiscal responsibility. Launched on January 7, 2026, the “Frontier Stable Token” (FRNT) became the first fiat-backed and fully-reserved stable token issued by a public entity in the United States. The Commission endeavors to enhance financial transparency, lower costs for constituents, and drive economic growth through blockchain innovation.For more information, visit https://stabletoken.wyo.gov.

The post Wyoming Frontier Stable Token (FRNT) now live on Hedera appeared first on Hedera.

USDT0, the omnichain deployment of Tether’s USDT, is now live on Hedera. This integration brings native, frictionless stablecoin liquidity to the Hedera ecosystem, with no wrapped tokens, no synthetic assets, and no third-party bridges required.

A new layer of liquidity for Hedera

Hedera has been, and continues to be, built for the demands of real-world financial infrastructure: rapid finality, institutional governance, energy-efficient design, and predictable cost at scale. With USDT0 now live on the network, that infrastructure gains deep, omnichain liquidity that connects Hedera directly to an ever-growing network of chains, wallets, and DeFi protocols.

Seamless crosschain stablecoin movement 

USDT0 is built on LayerZero’s OFT standard and operates with unified logic across every supported chain. This means users can move dollar liquidity to and from Hedera without user friction, slippage from bridging mechanics, or reliance on intermediaries.

Plug-and-play liquidity for builders

Hedera developers can now integrate USDT0 into their applications with minimal effort, tapping into deep, omnichain liquidity that scales with their user base regardless of what they’re building.

Expanded ecosystem connectivity. 

Through USDT0, Hedera gains direct access to an expanding network of integrations spanning multiple high-performance chains. This strengthens Hedera’s position as a hub for interoperable, enterprise-grade financial applications.

Enterprise trust meets omnichain liquidity

USDT0 was designed to eliminate the fragmentation that has historically hindered cross-chain stablecoin liquidity. Hedera was designed to eliminate the performance, governance, and sustainability gaps that hold enterprise adoption back. Together, they address two of the biggest friction points in institutional web3 adoption: trust and interoperability.

Hedera Council, composed of industry-leading, global organizations including Google, IBM, FedEx, and Dell, provides the accountability that regulated finance demands. Hashgraph technology enables institutions and developers to deliver solutions with fair transaction ordering, rapid finality, and sustainable operations supported by a foundation of transparent, responsible governance.

USDT0 brings that same principled, practical design philosophy to stablecoin liquidity: one token, unified across chains, backed by the full weight of Tether’s USDT.

“Hedera has built a network designed for real-world financial infrastructure, combining strong governance, reliable performance, and enterprise-grade scalability. With USDT0 now live on Hedera, we’re extending unified, omnichain USDT liquidity to an ecosystem focused on regulated finance and real-world applications.” – Lorenzo, USDT0 Co-Founder

Expanding scalable infrastructure for the digital economy

This integration expands the already broad range of possibilities for Hedera-powered applications. Stablecoins are increasingly being used for real-world asset settlement, programmable payments, and on-chain financial services. Bringing USDT0 to Hedera further ensures that builders in the Hedera ecosystem have access to the liquidity that enterprise-grade use cases require.

We’re proud to welcome USDT0 to Hedera and look forward to seeing what the community builds with it.

Resources

Hedera documentation: https://docs.hedera.com/ 

Getting started with USDT0: https://docs.usdt0.to/ 

The post Hedera integrates USDT0 for crosschain stablecoin liquidity appeared first on Hedera.

Who Is Affected

Developers who use Hiero Local Node for local development, testing, or CI pipelines. The urgency depends on the configuration:

• Unpinned Consensus Node versions (pulling the latest automatically): These setups will break when Consensus Node Release 74 is tagged around May 15, 2026. Blockstream becomes the default output format in that release, and Local Node does not support it.
• Pinned/default versions: No immediate breakage. Local Node will keep working with pinned older versions, but will stop receiving updates, bug fixes, or support after September 2026.

Not affected:

• Developers testing directly on testnet or previewnet
• Applications running on mainnet or testnet (this change is unrelated to production services)
• Developers already using Solo
• Developers using Hedera SDKs, Mirror Node APIs, or JSON-RPC Relay in production

What’s Changing

During the transition, Local Node will be maintained in Recordstream mode, pinned to pre-Blockstream behavior. It will stay functional, but will not reflect the current state of testnet or mainnet.

Why This Change Is Happening

The architecture of the Hedera network is changing with the introduction of Block Nodes, Block Stream, and TSS. Local Node was not built to support this new architecture. Rather than retrofitting it, local development tooling is being consolidated into Solo, which is designed for the network as it exists today and where it is heading.

What You Need to Do

Before May 15, 2026 (Unpinned Configurations)

Developers running Local Node with unpinned Consensus Node versions have two options:

1. Pin the Consensus Node version to a pre-Release 74 version in the Local Node configuration. This prevents breakage when Release 74 is tagged.
2. Update Local Node to the latest version once Recordstream mode support is available. This will configure the Consensus Node to output Recordstreams instead of Blockstreams.

Before September 2026 (All Local Node Users)

1. Assess current Local Node usage. Identify development workflows, test suites, and CI pipelines that depend on Local Node.
2. Stay informed about Solo. The team is preparing Solo as the replacement for Local Node. More announcements and updates will come as Solo development progresses. Watch the Solo GitHub repository and Hedera channels for status updates and release announcements.
3. Plan your migration timeline. Use this 6-month window to assess what your workflows need and prepare to transition when Solo is ready for broader adoption.
4. Report feature gaps. If Solo does not yet support a workflow that Local Node handles, open an issue on the Solo GitHub repository.

Solo: Current Status and Early Testing

Solo is in active development. The team is building Solo to provide all the local Hedera testing capabilities that Local Node currently offers and more! Solo is available in alpha for early testing and feedback from developers with the right hardware setup.

Early testing requirements: Solo alpha requires:

• Docker Desktop (or Docker Engine/Podman on Linux)
• At least 12 GB of RAM
• At least 6 CPU cores
• Node.js >= 22.0.0
• macOS or Linux (or Windows with WSL2)

If you meet these requirements and want to try Solo early, visit the Solo GitHub repository for installation instructions and to report feedback. Broader hardware support and stability improvements are in progress.

What you’ll find in Solo alpha: A single-node Hedera network with mirror node, JSON-RPC Relay, account creation, smart contract deployment, and transaction explorer.

Important Considerations

Local Node will not reflect production network behavior during the transition. It will run in Recordstream mode while testnet and mainnet move to Blockstreams. This means Local Node will increasingly diverge from the actual network state.

Solo is the long-term path. While Solo is currently in alpha, it will be the supported tool for local Hedera development going forward. The team is prioritizing stability, performance, and feature parity based on developer feedback.

Timeline

Resources and Support

• Solo GitHub repository for installation, testing, and feature requests
• Hedera Discord for general questions and migration support
• Local Node GitHub repository for current releases during the transition

Watch the Solo GitHub repository for progress updates and announcements as Solo development continues; if you have the right hardware and are up for it, consider doing early testing and providing feedback vie the repo. Also, be sure to join the Hedera Discord for community discussion and support during the transition.

The post Hiero Local Node Deprecation: 6-Month Transition to Solo appeared first on Hedera.

The post Hedera Highlights February 2026 appeared first on Hedera.

The post Hedera Developer Highlights February 2026 appeared first on Hedera.

We’re continuing the transition of Hedera-related projects to Hiero, and today we’re announcing that Solo is officially joining that journey.

As part of the broader ecosystem migration announced in 2024, projects are transitioning from the hashgraph namespace to vendor-neutral hiero-ledger namespaces under the Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust. This transition reinforces our commitment to open source, transparency, and community-driven governance.

What’s Changing?

The Solo codebase has already been migrated to the hiero-ledger GitHub organization. However, there is one remaining step in this transition:

• The NPM package is currently still published as @hashgraph/solo
• It will be moved to @hiero-ledger/solo

Dual Publishing Timeline

To ensure a smooth transition for developers, we will use a dual publishing strategy:

• Dual publishing period: February 25th → end of July (6 months)
• During this time, Solo will be published under both namespaces:
  • @hashgraph/solo
  • @hiero-ledger/solo
• After the dual publishing window, the package will be published exclusively under @hiero-ledger/solo

The exact version that marks the cutover (when releases stop under @hashgraph/solo) will be communicated closer to the transition date, once it’s clear which release will serve as the final dual-published version.

What Should Developers Do?

In short: update the namespace to avoid any issues.

• Start migrating your dependency to @hiero-ledger/solo during the dual publishing period.
• Avoid waiting until the final cutover to prevent disruptions.
• Future updates and fixes will only be available under the new namespace after the transition is complete.

The post Solo is Moving to the Hiero Namespace appeared first on Hedera.

What’s Changing

If you explicitly set these configuration values today, nothing changes for you. If you rely on defaults, your relay behavior will change after upgrading:

• Transaction pool enabled by default (ENABLE_TX_POOL=true)
  Expect increased in-memory tracking of pending transactions versus previous defaults.
  
• WebSocket subscriptions enabled by default (SUBSCRIPTIONS_ENABLED=true)
  Expect more long-lived connections and potentially higher resource usage depending on client behavior.
  
• Redis is disabled by default (REDIS_ENABLED=false).
  Redis-backed behavior is not used with defaults after upgrading unless this setting is explicitly configured.
  
• Async transaction processing is disabled by default (USE_ASYNC_TX_PROCESSING=false).
  Transaction processing runs synchronously by default, which shifts where load is handled and can change memory and CPU usage patterns compared to the previous default.
  
• Relay internal rate limiting disabled by default (RATE_LIMIT_DISABLED=true, HBAR_RATE_LIMIT_TINYBAR=0)
  Any rate limiting for the endpoint would be handled outside the Relay unless these settings are explicitly configured. This may result in additional spend on metered instances.

Why Is This Change Happening?  

The relay is often used as the “Ethereum-like” interface for tools such as wallets, indexers, explorers, and dApp backends. Many of these tools implicitly assume common Ethereum node behaviors.

These default changes move the Relay closer to those expectations, while still allowing operators to override any setting.

What You Need to Do

Before you upgrade to the Hiero JSON-RPC Relay v0.77.0, decide whether you want the new defaults or to preserve the existing behavior.

Option A: Accept the new defaults

No action needed.

Option B: Preserve existing behavior

If you prefer to keep the existing behavior to avoid changes, you can explicitly set these values in your environment / Helm values / compose file:

# Preserve prior defaults
ENABLE_TX_POOL=false
REDIS_ENABLED=true
USE_ASYNC_TX_PROCESSING=true
RATE_LIMIT_DISABLED=false
SUBSCRIPTIONS_ENABLED=false
HBAR_RATE_LIMIT_TINYBAR=25000000000

Copy

Conclusion

If you are currently using the Hiero JSON-RPC Relay, review the changes above and explicitly set any values you want to preserve or update before upgrading to v0.77.0.

If you have any questions or need guidance during this transition, please reach out on the Hedera Discord server or other official community channels.

The post Updates to the Hiero JSON-RPC Relay Default Configuration for Ethereum-Style Alignment | April 2026 appeared first on Hedera.

Axelar has integrated Hedera, giving developers and users across onchain finance seamless access to Hedera technology, applications and liquidity through a single programmable interface. The connection enables secure cross-chain transfers and contract calls between Hedera and dozens of blockchains supported by Axelar, providing a common foundation for institutional-grade onchain products. 

At launch, SaucerSwap and Squid are already leveraging the Hedera integration to extend cross-chain liquidity, access, and execution.

Hedera as a foundation for institutional onchain finance

Hedera has emerged as a leading destination for institutions exploring tokenization, trading and yield, combining a governance model aligned with regulated markets with a high-performance public network designed for predictable execution. Its council-based validator set gives financial institutions a familiar framework for trust, oversight and operational resilience. At the same time, Hedera’s architecture delivers low-cost, high-throughput settlement with deterministic finality, features that reduce reconciliation overhead and support high-volume use cases, from tokenized money-market funds to onchain yield-generating products.

For developers and investors, Hedera offers a maturing ecosystem built around EVM compatibility, audited tokenization frameworks and integrations with custody, identity and cross-chain providers. This ecosystem supports traditional fund issuance models, structured products and real-world asset distribution while allowing institutions to compose trading and yield strategies using familiar tools. Institutions gain a pathway to issue, access and settle tokenized assets without compromising compliance, while benefiting from onchain programmability that enables efficient liquidity management, automated yield distribution and interoperable capital flows. As regulated fund sponsors, custodians, banks and onchain investors converge on shared infrastructure, Hedera’s combination of governance, technology and integration standards makes it a practical foundation for institutional onchain finance.

Programmable interoperability with Axelar

The Hedera Foundation outlines the importance of the Axelar integration in a blog post, noting how Axelar expands the reach of the network’s growing onchain finance and DeFi ecosystem. As more developers launch new assets, liquidity venues and real-world-asset applications on Hedera, non-custodial interoperability becomes essential. Through Axelar’s programmable interoperability, Hedera developers can now reach users and capital on dozens of connected blockchains, while builders already plugged into the Axelar ecosystem gain access to Hedera’s performance profile and council-governed network environment.

Common Prefix recently outlined a 2026 roadmap for Axelar centered on institutional adoption, strengthening economic security, enabling compliant and privacy-aware infrastructure, and building institutional products up the stack, areas where Hedera is well aligned. Hedera’s predictable execution, strong governance, and compliance-oriented design make it a natural execution and settlement environment for institutional-grade onchain applications.

As part of this focus, Axelar is doubling down on a set of strategically important institutional ecosystems, prioritizing connections that drive meaningful adoption and long-term value. Connecting Hedera through Axelar reflects this direction, enabling builders to pair Hedera’s execution strengths with Axelar’s interoperability to deploy scalable, transparent, and compliant onchain products across networks.

SaucerSwap: Cross-chain liquidity and execution on Hedera

SaucerSwap is a leading decentralized exchange on Hedera, providing high-performance trading and liquidity infrastructure optimized for predictable execution and low fees. Through its integration with Axelar, SaucerSwap can support assets originating on external blockchains and deploy them into Hedera-based trading and liquidity pools. This allows liquidity providers, traders, and application builders to access multi-chain capital while settling activity on Hedera as a secure, governed execution layer, combining Axelar’s cross-chain connectivity with Hedera’s enterprise-grade performance and operational assurances.

Squid: Cross-chain access and liquidity routing

Squid is a cross-chain routing and liquidity layer built on Axelar that simplifies how users and applications move assets across ecosystems. With Hedera connected through Axelar, Squid enables assets to be routed into Hedera-native assets and applications through a unified transaction flow, abstracting away fragmented bridge workflows and intermediaries. By leveraging Axelar for secure message passing and settlement, Squid acts as an access and distribution layer for the Hedera ecosystem, bringing external liquidity and users onto Hedera while preserving its security model, performance profile and governance standards.

Enabling institutional-grade onchain finance at scale

Together, Axelar and Hedera deliver what institutions increasingly expect from onchain finance: secure connectivity, transparent settlement and the ability to deploy products across multiple networks without fragmentation. This integration strengthens the foundation for tokenization, trading and yield strategies that operate at scale, all through a single cross-chain platform.

For institutions: Explore Hedera ecosystem projects: hedera.com/ecosystem

For builders: Get started building on Hedera with Axelar: docs.axelar.dev 

The post Axelar Connects Hedera, Expanding the Gateway to Onchain Finance appeared first on Hedera.

Why This Change?

Usage patterns over time have revealed scalability challenges with AccountBalanceQuery. Each call places a load directly on consensus nodes, pulling them away from their core job of processing transactions and reaching consensus. As the network grows, that trade-off becomes harder to justify.

Better alternatives already exist. Mirror Nodes and the upcoming Block Nodes are purpose-built for data queries, offering improved performance, lower costs, and no impact on consensus. This deprecation aligns with a broader architectural principle: consensus nodes handle consensus, and specialized infrastructure handles data access.

Deprecation Timeline

The throttle will be reduced gradually over six months:

This timeline applies equally to mainnet, testnet, and previewnet.

Migration Paths

Option 1: Mirror Node REST API (Available Now)

The Mirror Node REST API is production-ready and provides cost-effective access to account balances without burdening consensus nodes. Queries are free on the Hedera-hosted mirror node (subject to throttles), and commercial providers offer paid plans for higher volumes.

Endpoint:

GET https://mainnet.mirrornode.hedera.com/api/v1/balances?account.id={accountId}

Copy

Before (AccountBalanceQuery):

const query = new AccountBalanceQuery()
    .setAccountId(accountId);
const balance = await query.execute(client);

Copy

After (Mirror Node REST API):

const response = await fetch(
    `https://mainnet.mirrornode.hedera.com/api/v1/balances?account.id=${accountId}`
);
const data = await response.json();
const balanceInTinybars = data.balances[0].balance;

Copy

Mirror Nodes also support token balance queries via the /api/v1/accounts/{accountId}/tokens endpoint.

Option 2: Block Nodes and Block Streams (Coming Soon)

For applications that require real-time balance updates, Block Streams offers an event-driven alternative. Based on HIP-1056 and HIP-1081, Block Streams unify Hedera’s event, record, and sidecar streams into a single, efficient, verifiable data stream. Developers will be able to subscribe and filter for only the changes they care about.

Block Nodes are actively under development. In the meantime, the Mirror Node REST API is the recommended path forward.

How to Migrate

1. Audit your codebase. Search for AccountBalanceQuery and .getAccountBalance() to identify every call site.

2. Choose a migration path. Mirror Node REST API covers the vast majority of use cases today.

3. Test in testnet. The Mirror Node testnet endpoint is available at https://testnet.mirrornode.hedera.com/api/v1/balances?account.id={accountId}.

4. Deploy before May 2026. Completing the migration before the first throttle reduction reduces the risk of rate limiting.

5. Remove deprecated references. Clean up all AccountBalanceQuery usage once the new integration is confirmed.

Get Support & Start Today

Experts and contributors across the ecosystem are available to help throughout this transition. The following resources are available to support you:

Documentation & Articles:

• Mirror Node REST API Reference
• Balance Endpoints
• Querying Data on Hedera: SDK vs Mirror Node REST API

Discord: Ask migration questions in the developer channels

Office Hours: Monthly community calls and weekly Q&As

Hedera Developer Playground: Try this example and see how to query account balances with the Mirror Node REST API.

Start planning your migration today. For the latest updates, visit docs.hedera.com.

FAQs

Can applications still use AccountBalanceQuery today?

Yes. It remains fully functional through April 2026 at the current 40,000 rps throttle. However, starting migration early is strongly recommended.

What happens if migration is not completed by May?

Applications exceeding the reduced throttle limits will experience rate limiting. After July 2026, all AccountBalanceQuery requests will fail.

Will Mirror Nodes have the same throttle limitations?

No. Mirror Nodes are designed for high-throughput query workloads. The Hedera-hosted mirror node offers free queries with specific throttles, and commercial providers offer higher limits through paid plans.

Is there a cost difference?

AccountBalanceQuery is currently free but burdens consensus nodes. Mirror Node REST API queries are also free (with throttles) on the Hedera-hosted mirror node and have no impact on consensus.

The post Migrating from AccountBalanceQuery: What You Need to Know appeared first on Hedera.

MEMPHIS, Tenn., February 13, 2026 – FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) today announced joining Hedera Council, a governing body made up of leading global organizations dedicated to fostering trust, security, and innovation on the Hedera network. FedEx joins the Council to help advance trusted digital infrastructure that can support the evolving lifecycle of global shipments and make supply chains smarter for everyone.

FedEx’s participation in Hedera Council reflects its long-term strategic focus on enabling global commerce to operate increasingly at the speed of data rather than the speed of paper or physical checkpoints. As supply chains become more digitally integrated, trusted data infrastructure is expected to play a growing role in supporting automation, enhanced digital visibility, and continuous compliance, while maintaining strong governance and risk controls across complex international trade environments.

Hedera’s public, enterprise-grade distributed ledger technology (DLT) provides a governed trust and notarization layer designed to support interoperable, multi-platform digital ecosystems while allowing enterprises to retain control of high-volume and sensitive operational data within their own environments.

Through its role on the Hedera Council, FedEx intends to contribute operational expertise and architectural perspective to support open, cooperative approaches to distributed infrastructure that enable the long-term digital evolution of global supply chains, including:

• Helping advance trusted digital infrastructure for the future of global supply chains
• Reducing friction in cross-border commerce by enabling secure, shared data verification across organizations and jurisdictions

“The digital transformation of global supply chains is inevitable,” said Vishal Talwar, executive vice president, chief digital and information officer of FedEx Corp., and president of FedEx Dataworks. “As supply chains become increasingly digital-native, trusted data must be shared and verified across many parties without increasing risk or centralizing control. Hedera provides a neutral, enterprise-grade trust layer that enables verification at global scale, while allowing organizations like FedEx to continue building differentiated capabilities on top.”

“We are proud to welcome FedEx to the Council,” said Tom Sylvester, president of Hedera Council. “FedEx brings deep operational insight into global logistics and commerce, and their perspective will be valuable as the industry transitions toward digitally native supply chains. We look forward to working together to advance trusted, interoperable data verification that supports collaboration across industries and jurisdictions.”

As a Council member, FedEx will operate a node on the Hedera network and will hold equal voting rights alongside other members, participating directly in the governance of Hedera software and services.

About FedEx Corp.

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) provides customers and businesses worldwide with a broad portfolio of transportation, e-commerce, and business services. With annual revenue of $90 billion, the company offers integrated business solutions utilizing its flexible, efficient, and intelligent global network. Consistently ranked among the world’s most admired and trusted employers, FedEx inspires its more than 500,000 employees to remain focused on safety, the highest ethical and professional standards and the needs of their customers and communities. FedEx is committed to connecting people and possibilities around the world responsibly and resourcefully, with a goal to achieve carbon-neutral operations by 2040. To learn more, please visit fedex.com/about.

About Hedera Council

Hedera Council is a globally distributed governing body composed of the world’s leading organizations, including Fortune 500 companies, banks, web3 innovators, and top universities, that govern the Hedera network. With members spanning diverse industries and regions, the council ensures decentralized, collusion-resistant governance.

Council members run network nodes and approve core updates, maintaining the security and integrity of the Hedera network. This trusted governance model sets Hedera apart as the enterprise-grade public network for scalable, secure, and transparent applications.

The post FedEx Joins Hedera Council to Support the Future of Digital Global Supply Chains appeared first on Hedera.